Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale

Dec 26, 2012 Christopher Roden rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm currently about halfway through this, and, frankly, am finding it somewhat disappointing. I had such high hopes after the absorbing THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER, but the first section alone had far too much irrelevant padding, and I fear somewhat for the remainder.

While there was much more to interest once the account of the legal proceedings got underway, this book remained something of a disappointment throughout. Despite that, I still feel it's worthy of 3***

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May 04, 2012 Naomi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Summerscale, again, provides an interesting portrayal of the Victorian England criminal/legal system. This time, she focuses on divorce laws, unfair to women, through presenting the case of Isabelle Robinson's divorce through her infidelity.

Kate Summerscale brings light to some of the most unusual cases in Victorian England, such as her last book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, and now this one. She brings what could be an a bori...more

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May 14, 2013 Tintaglia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books, galleys

Ho letto il primo libro di Kate Summerscale, Il delitto di Road Hill House, come se fosse un romanzo: la stessa appasionante cura nella narrazione, unita a un'attenzione per il dettaglio documentaristico eccezionale.

Al mio stupore sul come gli italiani non sappiano scrivere saggistica così, ma debbano sempre affliggere il lettore con prosa ponderosa e sintassi polverosa (mi scusino le poche, meravigliose eccezioni, come Benedetta Craveri) un amico mi spiegava che nei Paesi di lingua anglosassone...more

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Aug 18, 2012 CJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

This morning I heard a story on the radio show Radio 360 about Jace Clayton, a Brooklyn-based DJ also known as DJ/rupture, and how he pulls together sometimes quite different pieces of music and merges them into something new. I found it thrilling to hear the original pieces and then hear how Clayton brought them together. This was similar to how I felt while reading Mrs Robinson's Disgrace. Kate Summerscale skillfully weaves a variety of elements into a cohesive narrative, which I found absolut...more This morning I heard a story on the radio show Radio 360 about Jace Clayton, a Brooklyn-based DJ also known as DJ/rupture, and how he pulls together sometimes quite different pieces of music and merges them into something new. I found it thrilling to hear the original pieces and then hear how Clayton brought them together. This was similar to how I felt while reading Mrs Robinson's Disgrace. Kate Summerscale skillfully weaves a variety of elements into a cohesive narrative, which I found absolutely engaging.

I picked up this book after reading a review by Teresa on Shelf Love. Teresa seemed most struck by the idea that the act of keeping a diary would in itself have an influence on the diarist's thoughts and actions, that because in her diary Isabella Robinson dwelled so much on her infatuations and her feelings of being trapped by her marriage, she actually heightened and perpetuated those feelings.

While I, too, found this idea intriguing, I was more interested in where Mrs Robinson's diary and the ensuing divorce trial were situated in relation to the culture at that time. Victorian England was very focused on appearances and on maintaining institutions. While, given that atmosphere, it might seem an odd time to establish a Divorce Court, it wasn't really divorce as we think of it today. The purpose of the Divorce Court in Victorian England wasn't to dissolve unions that were unpleasant for either party. The purpose of the Divorce Court at the time, Summerscale suggests, was to strengthen the institution of marriage by weeding out the "bad" examples.

As a result, many of the rulings contained elements that we might find strange today. For example, there was the case in which Fanny Curtis was granted a divorce from her abusive husband but was not granted custody of their children. The vice-chancellor deciding the custody case determined that it was more important to the fabric of society to uphold a husband's rights, even if that meant leaving children in the hands of someone known to be abusive in his actions. "However harsh, however cruel the husband may be," the vice-chancellor explained, "it does not justify the wife's want of that due submission to the husband, which is her duty both by the law of God and by the law of man." Upholding the institution of marriage and the man's role within it was more important than the safety and wellbeing of the people affected by it. If the institution of marriage should fall, the concern seemed to be, society itself would be in danger.

It struck me several times while reading this book just how delicate the Victorians seemed to view society. Everywhere you turn, there's a threat. After Henry Robinson read his wife's diary with its apparent confession of adultery and amorous feelings for multiple men, he filed for divorce in the new court. Because he had no evidence for the adultery besides his wife's diary, excerpts were presented as evidence in court. Initially, the newspapers printed these excerpts as they were read in court, but after a while, the prurient content of the excerpts began to alarm some readers. Women had been barred from the courtroom during the reading of the most expository of the passages, but here women and even children could read the same material in the morning paper. Some publications chose not to publish these extracts because they might give readers (particularly women) bad ideas.

Summerscale writes:

The idea that certain kinds of writing were dangerous---especially to young women---was commonplace: usually the culprits were French novels, but Isabella Robinson's diary showed that a middle-class Englishwoman could assault her own decency in prose.

England recognized the bad influence of foreign novels like Flaubert's Madame Bovary, which addresses issues of adultery and (gasp!) women's sexual urges, but now it appeared necessary to protect the women of England even from themselves.

This is the beauty of this book. Summerscale doesn't just present the diary of one woman or chronicle the collapse of one marriage. Instead, she places these elements in historical context. We see how the lives of Isabella and Henry Robinson are interwoven with the culture and the ideas that were emerging at the time. She clearly demonstrates to her readers the tumult in England at the time as ideas of spirituality, sexuality, art, intellectualism, and the role of institutions in the lives of individuals were being scrutinized and inevitably altered in the examining. She shows the anxiety with which these new and dangerous ideas were received and how all of this coalesced in the pages of Isabella Robinson's diary and then intersected with the public sphere again during the divorce proceedings.

I enjoyed observing Summerscale's skill in pulling all of this together, and I highly enjoyed reading the resulting narrative.(less)

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May 23, 2013 Scrittevolmente rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

«per quanto il marito possa essere crudele o duro, questo non giustifica in una moglie la mancanza della dovuta sottomissione a lui, come è suo dovere secondo la legge di Dio e la legge degli uomini»

Nell’estate del 1858, il 14 del mese di giugno, iniziava la causa di divorzio chiesta da Robinson contro la consorte accusata di adulterio. Il celebre processo Robinson contro Robinson e Lane era uno dei primi intentati presso il nuovo Tribunale dei divorzi a Westminster Hall. Fino a quel momento un...more «per quanto il marito possa essere crudele o duro, questo non giustifica in una moglie la mancanza della dovuta sottomissione a lui, come è suo dovere secondo la legge di Dio e la legge degli uomini»

Nell’estate del 1858, il 14 del mese di giugno, iniziava la causa di divorzio chiesta da Robinson contro la consorte accusata di adulterio. Il celebre processo Robinson contro Robinson e Lane era uno dei primi intentati presso il nuovo Tribunale dei divorzi a Westminster Hall. Fino a quel momento un matrimonio poteva essere sciolto soltanto da decreto parlamentare e con costi proibitivi per la maggioranza dei cittadini, ora invece si poteva recidere il vincolo coniugale in maniera più rapida ed economica. Nonostante ciò, nella società vittoriana ottenere un divorzio restava difficile (l’uomo doveva dimostrare che la moglie aveva commesso adulterio e la donna che il marito si era macchiato di due crimini in ambito coniugale) ma furono in centinaia a presentare domanda portando in aula storie di tradimenti e conflitti, i cui protagonisti erano uomini violenti e, soprattutto, donne dai facili costumi.

Kate Summerscale, studiosa dell’epoca Vittoriana ci racconta la storia di Isabella Robinson, malmaritata e infelice moglie di 150 anni fa, e del suo divorzio da Henry Robinson, maschio medio vittoriano con DNA morale molto simile a quello di un talebano dei nostri giorni.

Intanto chiariamo una cosa: nell’Inghilterra Vittoriana erano previsti solo due tipi di donna: la Santa e la Puttana. Entrambe donne-oggetto ma con niente nel mezzo. O Bianco o Nero. O Bene o Male. Le Sante e le Puttane in comune hanno solo il sesso femminile, e nessuna delle due ha il permesso di pensare. Praticamente, la donna vittoriana è segata a metà a livello della vita: sopra le crinoline, niente e sotto, tra le gambe, tutto quello che serve a giustificare l’esistenza di un essere femmina a questo mondo. Perché la moglie serve per avere una discendenza, la prostituta per il sesso d’intrattenimento. A nessuna è richiesta una testa pensante, e i sentimenti sono paragonati al sentire indistinto e abbozzato di un bambino piccolo: felicità, tristezza, paura, fame, sete.

Questa è la posizione dell’Inghilterra Vittoriana verso le donne: beni ‘mobili’ del marito, che come tali vanno trattate e se cominciano a dare segni di ‘personalità’ propria, diventano solo un fastidio.

Per evitare tutto questo, la società Vittoriana aveva creato una sovrastruttura efficacissima, che censurava a colpi di isolamento sociale e privazione economica l’individualismo e l’affermazione della donna al di fuori del suo ruolo di moglie e madre.

Per leggere la recensione per intero: QUI (less)

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May 02, 2013 Vittoria Corella rated it 4 of 5 stars

«per quanto il marito possa essere crudele o duro, questo non giustifica in una moglie la mancanza della dovuta sottomissione a lui, come è suo dovere secondo la legge di Dio e la legge degli uomini».

Nell’estate del 1858, il 14 del mese di giugno, iniziava la causa di divorzio chiesta da Robinson contro la consorte accusata di adulterio. Il celebre processo Robinson contro Robinson e Lane era uno dei primi intentati presso il nuovo Tribunale dei divorzi a Westminster Hall. Fino a quel momento un...more «per quanto il marito possa essere crudele o duro, questo non giustifica in una moglie la mancanza della dovuta sottomissione a lui, come è suo dovere secondo la legge di Dio e la legge degli uomini».

Nell’estate del 1858, il 14 del mese di giugno, iniziava la causa di divorzio chiesta da Robinson contro la consorte accusata di adulterio. Il celebre processo Robinson contro Robinson e Lane era uno dei primi intentati presso il nuovo Tribunale dei divorzi a Westminster Hall. Fino a quel momento un matrimonio poteva essere sciolto soltanto da decreto parlamentare e con costi proibitivi per la maggioranza dei cittadini, ora invece si poteva recidere il vincolo coniugale in maniera più rapida ed economica. Nonostante ciò, nella società vittoriana ottenere un divorzio restava difficile (l’uomo doveva dimostrare che la moglie aveva commesso adulterio e la donna che il marito si era macchiato di due crimini in ambito coniugale) ma furono in centinaia a presentare domanda portando in aula storie di tradimenti e conflitti, i cui protagonisti erano uomini violenti e, soprattutto, donne dai facili costumi.
Kate Summerscale, studiosa dell’epoca Vittoriana ci racconta la storia di Isabella Robinson, malmaritata e infelice moglie di 150 anni fa, e del suo divorzio da Henry Robinson, maschio medio vittoriano con DNA morale molto simile a quello di un talebano dei nostri giorni.
Intanto chiariamo una cosa: nell’Inghilterra Vittoriana erano previsti solo due tipi di donna: la Santa e la Puttana. Entrambe donne-oggetto ma con niente nel mezzo. O Bianco o Nero. O Bene o Male. Le Sante e le Puttane in comune hanno solo il sesso femminile, e nessuna delle due ha il permesso di pensare. Praticamente, la donna vittoriana è segata a metà a livello della vita: sopra le crinoline, niente e sotto, tra le gambe, tutto quello che serve a giustificare l’esistenza di un essere femmina a questo mondo. Perché la moglie serve per avere una discendenza, la prostituta per il sesso d’intrattenimento. A nessuna è richiesta una testa pensante, e i sentimenti sono paragonati al sentire indistinto e abbozzato di un bambino piccolo: felicità, tristezza, paura, fame, sete.
Questa è la posizione dell’Inghilterra Vittoriana verso le donne: beni ‘mobili’ del marito, che come tali vanno trattate e se cominciano a dare segni di ‘personalità’ propria, diventano solo un fastidio.
Per evitare tutto questo, la società Vittoriana aveva creato una sovrastruttura efficacissima, che censurava a colpi di isolamento sociale e privazione economica l’individualismo e l’affermazione della donna al di fuori del suo ruolo di moglie e madre.
Isabella Robinson, benché cresciuta nel concetto di ossequio al Pater familias, ha una mente sveglia, curiosa e per questo facile alla noia. E’ una donna che difficilmente si può accontentare di un marito-padrone che la tratta alla stregua di un simpatico gadget per gentiluomini inseriti in società. Henry, ricco industriale borghese, l’ha sposata ‘perché sì’. Perché gli serviva una moglie coi soldi, una rendita extra. Perché semplicemente è così che deve andare: ci si sposa e ci si riproduce.
Un matrimonio infelice e molto normale, quindi. Ma Isabella ha molti desideri: intellettuali, sociali e soprattutto fisici. E’ incline alla passione e al desiderio e si innamora di Edward Robinson, medico già sposato più giovane di lei di dieci anni. Qualcosa tra loro succede e Isabella lo trascrive in un diario, che finisce ahimè tra le mani del marito. Henry, benché marito assente, gretto, prepotente a fedifrago (ha due figlie illegittime da una amante) , ferito nell’onore di maschio, chiede il divorzio (fino ad allora impensabile visti i costi e l’impatto sociale) per punire socialmente ed economicamente la moglie. Lo scandalo rischia di travolgerla, e se ottiene il divorzio potrà trattenersi anche i soldi della sua rendita, concedendole un mantenimento minimo. Oltre a toglierle per sempre i figli.
In un mondo che percepisce le donne come esseri deboli, non particolarmente dotati intellettualmente, vittime costanti di disturbi ‘uterini’, come può difendersi Isabella dalla vendetta di Henry?
Questa è la storia, dettagliatissima, del suo processo per adulterio. L’autrice attraverso i diari, le lettere, gli articoli di giornale, gli atti processuali ricrea un mondo e una donna ‘nel posto sbagliato al momento sbagliato’. Benchè saggio storico sulla condizione della donna vittoriana, ha il respiro del romanzo e scorre via piacevole senza mai annoiare. Ci si indigna per come viene trattata Isabella, e si pena per lei durante il processo. Ma a volte le cose non vanno come ci si potrebbe aspettare. Consigliato agli amanti del Vittorianesimo.
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Apr 02, 2013 Lindsey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Despite her wealth and connections in society, Isabel Robinson was unhappily married to a man who stole her inheritance and fathered two illegitimate children. Lonely and desperate for love, Isabel recorded in a diary her attempts to solicit the attentions of other men, from her sons’ tutors to the married Dr. Edward Lane. Isabel’s entries also revealed in length not only her desires and passions but also her philosophical journey in the rejection of her traditional faith to the transition of a...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Lynne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting account of infamous divorces case based on the diary entries of Isabella Robinson. Widowed and remarried by the age of 31, Isabella comes across as a dreamy fantasist who recounts somewhat scurrilous details of her attraction for the younger, married Dr Edward Lane. Reading the subsequent mis-treatment of Isabella by almost everyone, Lane included, it's clear where the author's sympathies lie, albeit subtly. Lane denied any adulterous conduct, Isabella was accused of temporary insani...more

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Feb 19, 2013 False Millennium rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-memoirs

The story of a Victorian lady who was "undone" by her personal diary. Isabella Robinson, trapped in an unhappy marriage, sought love, and she seemed to be seeking anywhere she could find it: her boy's tutors, a family friend (who she did have an affair with) and that was her undoing. Her husband found the diary, British law had recently allowed for divorce, and he took her to court and her diary became published in the newspapers during the trial. Sadly, it all went against her. She had to decla...more The story of a Victorian lady who was "undone" by her personal diary. Isabella Robinson, trapped in an unhappy marriage, sought love, and she seemed to be seeking anywhere she could find it: her boy's tutors, a family friend (who she did have an affair with) and that was her undoing. Her husband found the diary, British law had recently allowed for divorce, and he took her to court and her diary became published in the newspapers during the trial. Sadly, it all went against her. She had to declare it was all a lie, that she had been temporarily insane. Her lover(s) occupations were saved, her husband had to take her back (only later to successfully divorce her.) He remarried and had three more children. She...languished.

A passage from her diary is heartbreaking. "In an undated diary entry, Isabella explicitly addressed a future reader. "One week of a new year already gone," she began. "Ah! If I had the hope of another life of which my mother speaks (she and my brother wrote kindly this day), and which Mr. B. urged us to secure, all would be bright and well with me. But, alas! I have it not, nor can possibly obtain that, and as to this life, anger, sensuality, helplessness, hopelessness, overpower and rend my soul, and fill me with remorse and foreboding." "Reader," she wrote, "you see my inmost soul. You must depise and hate me. Do you also pause to pity? No, for when you read these pages all will be over with one who was "too flexible for virtue, too virtuous to make a proud, successful villain."

When Edward Lane (her lover) first read the diary, this entry in particular drew his anger and scorn: "The address to the Readers!" he wrote to Combe. "WHO is this Reader? Was this precious journal, then, intended for publication, ir not not quite so bad as that, was it meant for an heirloom for her family? On either supposition, I say there is clear madness here--and if there were not another passage in the whole farrago to warrant that view, to my mind this one alone would be sufficient."

Yet Isabella's address to an imagined reader might, on the contrary, point to the clearest explanation of all for why she kept her diary. Part of her, at least, wanted to be heard. She harbored a hope that somebody considering her words after her death would hesitate before damning her; that her story might one day be met with compassion, even love. In the absence of a spiritual afterlife, we were the only future she had. "Good night," she ended, with a desolate blessing, "May you be more happy."

Other than the portions reprinted in the newspapers of the day, the diary didn't survive--supposedly destroyed by her family.(less)

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Feb 17, 2013 Josie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction

[Audiobook version]

This really didn't live up to its title. Mrs Robinson came across as embarrassing rather than scandalous, flinging herself at younger men without seeming to realise that they really weren't attracted by her cougarish antics. The affair with Dr Lane, which this book is centred around, left me baffled. One moment Mrs Robinson is desperately bombarding him with gushing letters (to which he doesn't reply) and I'm thinking, give up, love, and the next minute they're having sex in a...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Joanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mrs. Robinson's diary was her disgrace, but it is a gift to us. Any time a journal of a woman from another era has somehow been preserved, it is a rare treasure, and no less so when it is that of a normal woman, not a public figure, recording her innermost thoughts and emotions as if the journal were the only friend who would ever listen or care. Mrs. Robinson was a scandalous, wanton, if not criminally insane seductress in the eyes of Victorian society. But today the record she left shows a bri...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Insightful account of the divorce trial of Mrs. Robinson, whose case was scandalous lrgely because so much of her peronal diary was admitted as evidence. The inlusion of diary entries gives an immediacy to the telling of the story, but also gives a very slanted viewpoint, as becomes clear when the author begins to describe how various interested parties tried to use it in court. The case highlights such issues as Victorian sexual mores, changing laws on divorce, and "advanced" ideas and intellec...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Abuela Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace is a narrative nonfiction about one of the first civil divorce cases in England in the Victorian era. Of course there was a double standard with it being easy to prove a woman had committed adultery and not at all easy to prove a man had, let alone the fact that Isabella’s husband had a mistress and children outside of his marriage. That was acceptable. Women had few rights at this time: her husband took even the income that she had from a trust and once he found her dia...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Margaret Sankey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Isabella Robinson was a typical Victorian middle-class married woman--with the advantages of material comfort and all the disadvantages of a system that saw women in general as helpless children and middle class women in particular as functioning as angels of the home and not in need of education, stimulation or value. Widowed young and remarried to a striving civil engineer, Isabella was alone for long stretches, relocated frequently and cut off from intellectual development, lacked the powerfu...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

British non-fiction writer Kate Summerscale presents the tragic 19th Century tale of Isabella Robinson, one of the first women to be sued for divorce in Victorian England. Isabella was intelligent and intellectually engaged. She had a fierce longing for love and writing talent. I'm glad that Ms. Summerscale took notice of her place in British legal history and researched it so scrupulously. Her delicate study of the divorce suit and of the personalities involed took me back to Isabella's time. I...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub

This is nonfiction book takes a look at an infamous adultery case in Victorian England. Isabella Robinson falls ill, and her husband, whom she despises, goes through her things and reads her diary, thus leading to one of the first divorce trials in England to be covered by the papers, tabloid-style. Recent laws had made divorce more simple and cheap for the middle class to afford, and Isabella's diary was read aloud in court.

I found the first half of this book, that sets up the history of her un...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Another Mrs. Robinson...another sexual escapade, only this one is not begun with "plastics" but with the lonely life of a Victorian woman's misalliance. The widowed Isabella marries Henry who is not only mean, but unable to fulfill her sexual needs (or maybe her sexual needs are extreme; remember this is Victorian England). Isabella seems to "fall in love" with every young man who crosses her path, and moreover keeps a diary detailing all of her feelings and desires. Her diary does indicate a st...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Karen morsecode added it

Until the introduction of the Matrimonial Causes Act in 1857, divorce was a privilege granted only to England's elite requiring as it did a private act of Parliament. In 1958 the newly created Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes began to grant divorces to couples where adultery (in the case of the wife) or multiple "matrimonial offences" (in the case of the husband) could be verified.

In Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace Summerscale turns her lens to one of the most titillating of the court's early di...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Eustacia Tan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley

The subtitle of this book reads "The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady". But really, it's like one of those non-fiction historical crime novels - it dissects what actually happened using not only her diary but also the letters, newspapers, etc. What all this leads to is a very interesting narrative on what happened.

Because it's almost impossible to know exactly what happened (even the diary is not explicit), quite a lot of guesswork has to be made. But it all sounds very plausible,

Now that I've...more The subtitle of this book reads "The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady". But really, it's like one of those non-fiction historical crime novels - it dissects what actually happened using not only her diary but also the letters, newspapers, etc. What all this leads to is a very interesting narrative on what happened.

Because it's almost impossible to know exactly what happened (even the diary is not explicit), quite a lot of guesswork has to be made. But it all sounds very plausible,

Now that I've got the whole "reliability" thing out of the way, on to the narrative of the book. While it's not a first person narrative, it reads like a crime novel (without the crime). There is (naturally), a lot of emphasis on the titular Mrs Robinson, who is caught between for her feelings for another man, and her husband, who by all accounts sounds like a deeply unpleasant fellow.

The book is split into two parts - what happened before, and the divorce trial. Apparently, the trial was a great sensation because of the diary. It also caused a lot of scandal/trouble among those she knew, because she didn't believe in God but in the powers of science (and at time, one of her teachers was endeavouring the show that they two weren't incompatible).

Well, I guess there's not much to say. It's a biography (on a very specific part of her life, even though there is an quick summary of her life before and after) after all, and it's hard to summarise without giving away the plot. But it's a really interesting book, and it provides a look at a very interesting lady.

In fact, I think you should read this book along with "The Women Reader" by Belinda Jack. The Women Reader looks at the history of women reading (and writing), and Mrs Robinson is by all accounts a well-read and talented women writer. So, it makes sense to read her and learn about the history of women reading at the same time (plus, this if you read Mrs Robinson's Disgrace second, you get the benefit of knowing the attitudes towards reading and writing at that time).

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

First posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile (less)

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May 13, 2012 Beatnik Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

http://www.cozylittlebookjournal.com/...

Kate Summerscale's previous work, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, read like a novel, one that would be at home on a shelf between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins (Summerscale really likes Wilkie Collins, judging by how often she quotes him). Her new work, Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace, shows a similar talent for turning historical documents into riveting, edge-of-your-seat reading. Of course, this one is more like a Jane Austen novel than a Conan Doyle...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Angie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mixed emotions about this book; started out quite enthused, got bored, and then was caught up again in the the second half. On the one hand, it reads like a novel, a portrait of an upper-class wife of that period and a fascinating account of the laws and procedures for divorce in the mid-nineteenth century. The first half of the book is like an English Madame Bovary, using Isabella's diary extensively to describe a neurotic but also somewhat sympathetic woman , dissatisfied with her life and att...more Mixed emotions about this book; started out quite enthused, got bored, and then was caught up again in the the second half. On the one hand, it reads like a novel, a portrait of an upper-class wife of that period and a fascinating account of the laws and procedures for divorce in the mid-nineteenth century. The first half of the book is like an English Madame Bovary, using Isabella's diary extensively to describe a neurotic but also somewhat sympathetic woman , dissatisfied with her life and attracted to other men. This part was to my taste a bit more drawn-out than it could have been; I became somewhat impatient. I also wish we had a fuller picture of Henry Robinson during this period; he is distinguished primarily by his absence and seems to be mentioned only when he and Isabella quarrel. I wondered, for example, if he actually was as cold as she pictures him. Can't really criticize the author for less detail about Henry than about Isabella; after all, we don't have HIS diary! However, about 2/3 of the way through the book the author mentions almost in passing that Henry had 2 illegitimate daughters that he acknowledged sufficiently to want to introduce them to society and was known to have a long-term mistress. Obviously more is known about Henry than we are told.
In the second half of the book Madame Bovary morphs into Perry Mason as we see conflicting testimony in the courtroom about whether the diary is true. The question is not "Who dunnit?" but "Did anyone do it?". The emphasis is on social, legal, and (horrifying ) medical history in the second half, and it is more interesting than the first half, which is, after all, merely the story of the life of a not very remarkable woman whose most personal thoughts/fantasies became public record.
Throughout the book there are cameo appearances by well-known figures like Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin, so many that if it were fiction I might object that there were too many to be credible! "Six degrees of separation" are way too many---it seems everyone who was ANYONE was at most one or two degrees removed, usually by blood as well as acquaintance.(less)

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May 28, 2012 David Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Kate Summerscale's earlier book 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'. She consolidates her reputation for me with this absorbing account of a Victorian lady's fall from respectable affluence to disgrace as a result not so much of her sexual appetite but her obsession with writing about it in a diary which could easily be found by her monstrous husband; and inevitably was.

Summerscale tends to her prose like a diligent gardener; it is well-kempt and unfussy, attractive without being showy, and...more I enjoyed Kate Summerscale's earlier book 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'. She consolidates her reputation for me with this absorbing account of a Victorian lady's fall from respectable affluence to disgrace as a result not so much of her sexual appetite but her obsession with writing about it in a diary which could easily be found by her monstrous husband; and inevitably was.

Summerscale tends to her prose like a diligent gardener; it is well-kempt and unfussy, attractive without being showy, and provides something new of interest at every turn. Nor does she leave her tools on the lawn as so many historian-gardeners do - the details of her extensive research are kept neatly in the notes section at the back so as not to interrupt the flow of the story.

While Isabella Robinson's emotions and psychology form the core of interest, there is plenty of rewarding diversion along the way. We learn a good deal of the ways, habits and foibles of mid Victorian upper-middle class society, which confirms so much of what we may have discovered in the fictional worlds of E M Forster and others. The status of women as 'chattels' to their husbands becomes starkly apparent in the way Isabella is economically 'stripped' by her husband. (I'm sure most readers will have shared my longing for Henry to have his come-uppance, but I won't spoil things for new readers by revealing whether or not this happens.) The later chapters of the book are fascinating too for their treatment of the changing legal system in England, and the consequences of decisions made in court.

As with 'Mr Whicher' Kate Summerscale turns the trick of making us think of these real-life subjects as characters in a novel, and in so doing takes us through all the emotions, identifications, lows and highs that we would normally expect in fiction. The paradox is that they become more real and immediate as a consequence than they might have seemed had the author supplied a drier historical account. This narrative technique certainly works for me and, judging by the popularity of Summerscale's books, for many other readers too. (less)

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May 23, 2012 CuteBadger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kate Summerscale examines the often problematic nature of Victorian middle-class marriage by examining women's marital rights through the prism of one notorious divorce case. Isabella Robinson kept a daily diary of her innermost thoughts and her yearning for romance and passion. But however secret personal diaries are intended to be, they have a habit of becoming more public than expected.

The case looked at in the book happens at a time when the law was changing to allow easier separation and di...more

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Sep 10, 2012 July rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people interested in Victorian life

Shelves: 2012, ebook, nonfiction, tbr-pile-challenge

Liked:
* There was a lot of interesting information about divorce and divorce law in Victorian England.
* The reader gets a glimpse of how life was for middle class Victorians whose lives touched those of the great well-knowns (Darwin, Dickens, Queen Victoria) but who were not famous enough to be remembered themselves. I found it to be a very enlightening view.
* The book touched on the effects of new ideas and sciences on the lives of ordinary people. For example, Mrs. Robinson was an atheist and...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Ariel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I read this right after reading Mr. Briggs Hat, another non fiction book that relates events that occurred in Victorian England. While Mr. Briggs Hat told the story of the first railway carriage murder, Mrs. Robinson's ruminated on what it meant to be a woman and the state of marriage in Victorian England. As you can imagine we have come a long way. Interestingly both novels referenced Wilkie Collins A woman in White. It must be quite the hallmark book of the times.

In Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace we...more I read this right after reading Mr. Briggs Hat, another non fiction book that relates events that occurred in Victorian England. While Mr. Briggs Hat told the story of the first railway carriage murder, Mrs. Robinson's ruminated on what it meant to be a woman and the state of marriage in Victorian England. As you can imagine we have come a long way. Interestingly both novels referenced Wilkie Collins A woman in White. It must be quite the hallmark book of the times.

In Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace we are introduced to Isabella Robinson. She is a young widow with a small son when she marries Henry Robinson. At first she has high hopes for the marriage but most like most men Henry is grumpy and hard to please. He also takes all of her money and I think he cheats on her too. Although Isabella does her best to be a good wife and mother her thoughts turn towards a handsome family friend Dr. Edward Lane. Since she doesn't have to pick up his dirty underwear off of the floor and listen to his bitchin' and moaning he seems attractive to her, probably more so than if she had to actually live with him. She puts her scandalous thoughts about him into a diary. Whether the things she writes about in the diary actually occurred or were just in her imagining is up for some debate. Whatever the case, she and Dr. Lane will go on to deny every word. One day Isabella becomes very ill and while she is out of it her sneaky husband goes through her things and reads the diary. It is enough to bring Isabella to court on charges of adultery and he takes her sons away and files for divorce.

Although Isabella came off as stupid and vapid some times, my sympathies definitely lay with her although she could have picked someone better to objectify than a married man with small children. Too many innocent people were hurt by her flirtations. Her choice of love interest seemed to be rectified in later life. Henry was portrayed as a real miserable piece of work and Dr. Lane alternated between oblivious and flirtatious. I felt sorry for his family but he seems to have known the score where Isabella was concerned. In addition to the story of Isabella and Henry there was some further padding with discussions of the Victorian notion of women and sexuality. All in all it was a good look into the Victorian family. As long as a woman was able to keep her unhappiness suppressed as well as her sexual desires everything was hunky dory. If she dared to try to take control of her life she was thought to be insane. This book made me feel sorry for Isabella who would have been better suited to find happiness if she had lived today.(less)

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May 21, 2012 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace tells the story of Isabella Robinson. Isabella is married to Henry, a cold and strict man who is not home often. Isabella is left to take care of their home and children most often alone and she finds her life dull and passionless. She writes a diary of her restlessness and for her desire for another man. The other man is Dr. Edward Lane who is married and has children. The diary tells of Isabella's hopes, desires, fantasies, and the lack of feeling she has for her own h...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-need-my-own-copy

Consider, if you will, a Victorian drama in two acts.

In the first act Isabella Robinson, the unhappy wife of an uncaring husband, began to keep a diary. She wrote of her friendship with the Lane and Drysdale families, who clearly understood her situation and offered her friendship and support. Doctor Edward Lane, the husband of her friend Mary, was everything that her own husband was not. Isabella was drawn to him, attracted to him, and she was prepared to act. He, diplomatically, keeps her at a...more

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May 24, 2012 Gwendolyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

As I’ve come to expect from Kate Summerscale (author of the acclaimed The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher), Mrs. Roginson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady, is an engaging work of nonfiction that delves into the most private moments of family life. Summerscale investigates the 1850s divorce case brought by Henry Robinson, a middle-class businessman, against his wife Isabella in the earliest years of the newly constituted Divorce Court in London. At that time, “[m]arriage was the subjec...more

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May 20, 2012 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of Victorian gentry, it is the story of Isabella Robinson and her life, longings and dreams. The society in which she lived did not allow her the freedom to live as she wished, so it does show how far we have come since those times.
The book is titled as a diary, but it is not written in diary format, rather the author describes the content of the diary within the story. It is very interesting as you begin to wonder is the diary a true description of w...more

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Feb 28, 2013 The Book Maven rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

For a history major who specialized in Victorian England, most of the information within this book (if not the people and circumstances themselves) are old hat. SHOCKER--women got screwed!!!! Without a lot of legal hooplah to otherwise protect them, women relinquished their right to their property and earnings once they were married. Divorce was becoming somewhat easier, but while men only had to prove adultery, women had to prove adultery and cruelty. Custody battles tended to favor the father....more

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