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Road to Divorce: England, 1530-1987 First Edition
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Despite the infamous divorce of Henry VIII in 1529, Britons before the 20th century were predominantly, in Stone's words, "a non-divorcing and non-separating society." In fact, before divorce was legalized in 1857, England was the only Protestant country with virtually no avenue for divorce on the grounds of adultery, desertion, or cruelty. Yet marriages did fail, and in Road to Divorce, Stone examines a goldmine of court records--in which witnesses speak freely about love, sex, adultery, and marriage--memoirs, correspondence, and popular imaginative works to reveal how lawyers and the laity coped with marital discord. Equally important, in tracing the history of divorce, Stone has discovered a way to recapture the slow, irregular, and tentative evolution of moral values concerning relations between the sexes as well as the consequent shift from concepts of patriarchy to those of sexual equality. He thus offers a privileged, indeed almost unique, insight into the interaction of the public spheres of morality, religion, and the law.
Written by the foremost historian of family life, Road to Divorce provides the first full study of a topic rich in historical interest and contemporary importance, one that offers astonishingly frank and intimate insights into our ancestors' changing views about what makes and breaks a marriage.
- ISBN-100198226519
- ISBN-13978-0198226512
- EditionFirst Edition
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication dateDecember 6, 1990
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions9.21 x 6.14 x 1.13 inches
- Print length488 pages
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-James A. Casada, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill,
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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- Publisher : Oxford University Press; First Edition (December 6, 1990)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 488 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0198226519
- ISBN-13 : 978-0198226512
- Lexile measure : 1680L
- Item Weight : 1.83 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.21 x 6.14 x 1.13 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,954,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #599 in Divorce & Separation Family Law (Books)
- #3,833 in Divorce (Books)
- #5,206 in England History
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2014Surprisingly readable and enjoyable discussion of reasons why divorce was so rare in England in past times. The changes and dates of changes in divorce law were discussed. I think this would be a valuable addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in English social history.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2009Anyone intrigued but a little mystified by the behavior, romantic concerns, and subsequent motivations in matrimonial decisions, of characters penned by Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, the Brontes, and, indeed, authors clear through to Wilke Collins and Thomas Hardy, will find a world of enlightenment in the pages of Lawrence Stone's most worthy book.
Although this and, it must be noted, the two prior works that compose Stone's magnificant trilogy: Uncertain Unions and Broken Lives, are works of brilliant scholarship, they are never a dull read. For, from the whip-tight mind of Stone pours forth page after page of such flawlessly woven statistics, such brightly illuminated narration, that the darkest corner of the marital bedchambre of the past is shown in such stark and, sometimes, harrowing detail, that the only wonder is that anyone ever managed to imagine a "happily ever after" in the first place.
From the abduction of heiresses, the testimony of servants, and the gamble of the crim/con suite, all the way to the fabled Gretner's Green in Scotland, a map of such clarity and intrigue is laid out that one quite forgets that one is head down in scholarship. Rather, one finds one's self galloping headlong through the darkness of raging personal battles long ago fought, and won - or tragically lost - in a maze of thrashing laws and loop holes resembling, to the modern mind, nothing so much as the forest of Mirkwood. But, always and ever, Stone's brilliant torch leads one forward.
From the moment I picked them up, these books were my constant companions. Not the least bit of a legal turn of mind is required; Stone writes with such organization, clarity, and compulsion, that understanding of, and enlightenment to the motivations of 500 years of those who loved - and who lost - is inevitable.Uncertain Unions: Marriage in England 1660-1753Broken Lives: Separation and Divorce in England, 1660-1857
- Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2011Well written and of Great interest to lawyers and all of those who strive to understand some of the underpinnings of our culture
- Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015A must have for any writer of historical fiction.
Top reviews from other countries
- Dolly DressmakerReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2023
4.0 out of 5 stars A history of disappointment.
An interesting academic book, though very dry and pretty heavy going. Purchased as it covers an historical case I am particularly interested in, but as it deals mainly with people going through a pretty terrible time after making pretty terrible life choices, it was never going to be a lightweight beach read. Makes me glad I never married.
- BarbReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 15, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars Echoes of our Present Lives
Not just history, it makes the reader reflect on how we behave today.