Broken engagements
Subtitle: the action for breach of promise of marriage and the feminine ideal, 1800-1940
By: Saskia Lettmaier.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Oxford [UK]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9780199569977
Subjects: Breach of promise -- History; Husband and wife -- History; Betrothal -- Law and legislation
Description: Lettmaier explores ideals of femininity during the 19th and early 20th centuries by charting responses to broken engagements. Interweaving a history of the legal remedies for a broken promise of marriage with literary accounts from Dickens to Wodehouse, it offers an insight into attitudes to female identity.