Culture and Adultery: The Novel, the Newspaper, and the Law 1857-1914
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. First edition. Hardcover. First printing. As new in as new dust jacket. Hardcover. 300 pp. with bibliography, index. Illustrations. Through the Victorian period and into the early 20th century, adultery, it is often assumed, was not a major concern of English culture. The apparent absense of adultery---indeed all explict representations of sexuality---in turn made censorship for obscene libel unnecessary---very few writers (so conventional wisdom has it) were bold enough to defy the powerful implicit restraints. The author here, however, demonstrates that adultery preoccupied English culture during the period; it was, after the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act , prominently discussed in divorce court and transcriptions of divorce trials were popular front-page features for almost all daily newspapers. At the same time, as adultery stood at the cneter of sensation novels, literary reviews and cultural debates stronly encouraged serious novelists to avoid the topic. As New / as new. Item #E25423
ISBN: 0812234987
Price: $30.00