The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton - Couverture rigide

Atkinson, Dr Diane

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1848093012 ISBN 13 : 9781848093010

Editeur : Preface Publishing, 2012

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Westminster, London, 22 June 1836. It is a fine, fresh morning that will become hot as the day progresses. Crowds are gathering at the Court of Common Pleas.

On trial is Caroline Sheridan, a beautiful and clever young woman who had been manoeuvred into marrying the Honourable George Norton when she was just nineteen. Ten years older, he is a dull, violent and controlling lawyer but Caroline is determined not to be a traditional wife. By her early twenties, Caroline has become a respected poet and songwriter, clever mimic and outrageous flirt. Her beauty and wit attract many male admirers, including the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. After years of simmering jealousy, Norton accuses Caroline and the Prime Minister of a 'criminal conversation' (adultery) precipitating 'the scandal of the century'. In Westminster Hall that day is a young Charles Dickens, who would, just a few months later, fictionalise the event as 'Bardell v. Pickwick' in The Pickwick Papers. After a trial lasting twelve hours, the jury's not guilty verdict is immediate, unanimous and sensational. Norton is a laughing stock. Angry and humiliated he cuts Caroline off, as was his right under the law, refuses to let her see their three sons, seizes her manuscripts and letters, her clothes and jewels, and leaves her destitute.

The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton is the extraordinary story of one woman's fight for the rights of women everywhere. For the next thirty years Caroline campaigned for women and battled male-dominated Victorian society, helping to write the Infant Custody Act (1839), and influenced the Matrimonial Causes (Divorce) Act (1857) and the Married Women's Property Act (1870), which gave women a separate legal identity for the first time.

Revue de presse :

"The liberating life story of the first feminist legislator" (Kathy Lette)

"Diane Atkinson has written the definitive account of one of the most important trials of the nineteenth century - that of Caroline Norton's fight to keep her children. The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton is an important and necessary book. It also happens to be beautifully written and extremely entertaining. Diane Atkinson has resurrected a nineteenth century heroine in the twentieth-first century." (Amanda Foreman)

"Caroline Norton took her fight to see her children to the highest court in the land and changed the lot of mothers for ever. Diane Atkinson tells her story with a clarity and wit that makes it a pleasure to read." (Joan Bakewell)

"Expertly researched and finely written... Mrs Norton's journey from abused wife to passionate reformer is as moving as it is fascinating, and Atkinson's richly detailed work does her subject the justice she deserves." (BBC History Magazine)

"Diane Atkinson's captivating fifth book...pacy book that's as bright and fascinating as its heroine." (Independent on Sunday)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Preface Publishing
• Date d'édition: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1848093012
• ISBN 13: 9781848093010
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 496