Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace

The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady

Nonfiction, History, British
Cover of the book Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale, Bloomsbury Publishing
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kate Summerscale ISBN: 9780802743688
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Publication: June 19, 2012
Imprint: Bloomsbury USA Language: English
Author: Kate Summerscale
ISBN: 9780802743688
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication: June 19, 2012
Imprint: Bloomsbury USA
Language: English

"I think people marry far too much; it is such a lottery, and for a poor woman--bodily and morally the husband's slave--a very doubtful happiness." -Queen Victoria to her recently married daughter Vicky

Headstrong, high-spirited, and already widowed, Isabella Walker became Mrs. Henry Robinson at age 31 in 1844. Her first husband had died suddenly, leaving his estate to a son from a previous marriage, so she inherited nothing. A successful civil engineer, Henry moved them, by then with two sons, to Edinburgh's elegant society in 1850. But Henry traveled often and was cold and remote when home, leaving Isabella to her fantasies.

No doubt thousands of Victorian women faced the same circumstances, but Isabella chose to record her innermost thoughts-and especially her infatuation with a married Dr. Edward Lane-in her diary. Over five years the entries mounted-passionate, sensual, suggestive. One fateful day in 1858 Henry chanced on the diary and, broaching its privacy, read Isabella's intimate entries. Aghast at his wife's perceived infidelity, Henry petitioned for divorce on the grounds of adultery. Until that year, divorce had been illegal in England, the marital bond being a cornerstone of English life. Their trial would be a cause celebre, threatening the foundations of Victorian society with the specter of "a new and disturbing figure: a middle class wife who was restless, unhappy, avid for arousal." Her diary, read in court, was as explosive as Flaubert's Madame Bovary, just published in France but considered too scandalous to be translated into English until the 1880s.

As she accomplished in her award-winning and bestselling The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Kate Summerscale brilliantly recreates the Victorian world, chronicling in exquisite and compelling detail the life of Isabella Robinson, wherein the longings of a frustrated wife collided with a society clinging to rigid ideas about sanity, the boundaries of privacy, the institution of marriage, and female sexuality.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"I think people marry far too much; it is such a lottery, and for a poor woman--bodily and morally the husband's slave--a very doubtful happiness." -Queen Victoria to her recently married daughter Vicky

Headstrong, high-spirited, and already widowed, Isabella Walker became Mrs. Henry Robinson at age 31 in 1844. Her first husband had died suddenly, leaving his estate to a son from a previous marriage, so she inherited nothing. A successful civil engineer, Henry moved them, by then with two sons, to Edinburgh's elegant society in 1850. But Henry traveled often and was cold and remote when home, leaving Isabella to her fantasies.

No doubt thousands of Victorian women faced the same circumstances, but Isabella chose to record her innermost thoughts-and especially her infatuation with a married Dr. Edward Lane-in her diary. Over five years the entries mounted-passionate, sensual, suggestive. One fateful day in 1858 Henry chanced on the diary and, broaching its privacy, read Isabella's intimate entries. Aghast at his wife's perceived infidelity, Henry petitioned for divorce on the grounds of adultery. Until that year, divorce had been illegal in England, the marital bond being a cornerstone of English life. Their trial would be a cause celebre, threatening the foundations of Victorian society with the specter of "a new and disturbing figure: a middle class wife who was restless, unhappy, avid for arousal." Her diary, read in court, was as explosive as Flaubert's Madame Bovary, just published in France but considered too scandalous to be translated into English until the 1880s.

As she accomplished in her award-winning and bestselling The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, Kate Summerscale brilliantly recreates the Victorian world, chronicling in exquisite and compelling detail the life of Isabella Robinson, wherein the longings of a frustrated wife collided with a society clinging to rigid ideas about sanity, the boundaries of privacy, the institution of marriage, and female sexuality.

More books from Bloomsbury Publishing

Cover of the book Evangelical Youth Culture by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Modelling a Focke-Wulf Fw 190F-8 by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Uncle Target by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book African Lace-bark in the Caribbean by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Pigs & Pork by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book The Cinema of Tarkovsky by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Civil War by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Hope, Utopia and Creativity in Higher Education by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Nothing Holds Back the Night by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book The Living Novel by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book EU Security and Justice Law by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Art as Organism by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book India's Glocal Leader by Kate Summerscale
Cover of the book Family Reunification in the EU by Kate Summerscale
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy