The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton
Historian Atkinson builds an impressive biography around a scandalous early court case that titillated the collective sensibilities of early Victorian-era England. In 1836, George Norton brought suit against Prime Minister Lord Melbourne for having criminal conversation, aka sexual relations, with his wife, well-known author Caroline Norton. Though the suit was thrown out by the jury, its impact was long-lasting, reverberating through both legal and social circles for years and altering the course of feminist history. Thrown out of her home and denied access to her children, Caroline engaged in inveterate campaigning that led directly to the Custody of Infants Act of 1839, the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, and the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870. As Atkinson reviews Caroline’s life, a robust portrait emerges of a woman who refused to be circumscribed by the restrictive social mores and legal inequities of her time and place in history. --Margaret Flanagan--This text refers to an alternateHardcoveredition.