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The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton and Her Fight for Women's Justice
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About This Book
Award-winning historian Antonia Fraser brilliantly portrays a courageous and compassionate woman who refused to be curbed by the personal and political constraints of her time. Caroline Norton dazzled nineteenth-century society with her vivacity, her intelligence, her poetry, and in her role as an artist's muse. After her marriage in 1828 to the MP George Norton, she continued to attract friends and admirers to her salon in Westminster, which included the young Disraeli. Most prominent among her admirers was the widowed Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. Racked with jealousy, George Norton took the Prime Minister to court, suing him for damages on account of his 'Criminal Conversation' (adultery) with Caroline. A dramatic trial followed. Despite the unexpected and sensational result—acquittal—Norton was still able to legally deny Caroline access to her three children, all under seven. He also claimed her income as an author for himself, since the copyrights of a married woman belonged to her husband. Yet Caroline refused to despair. Beset by the personal cruelties perpetrated by her husband and a society whose rules were set against her, she chose to fight, not surrender. She channeled her energies in an area of much-needed the rights of a married woman and specifically those of a mother. Over the next few years she campaigned tirelessly, achieving her first landmark victory with the Infant Custody Act of 1839. Provisions which are now taken for granted, such as the right of a mother to have access to her own children, owe much to Caroline, who was determined to secure justice for women at all levels of society from the privileged to the dispossessed.
Reviews
"The life of Caroline Norton, the 19th century author and campaigner who is the remarkable subject of Antonia Fraser's engaging new biography The Case of the Married Woman, plays out like a Victorian sensation novel ..."
"Fraser's generous and humane biography is a reminder that Caroline Norton was much more than either a pioneer in legal reform, or a demi-mondaine who kept the gossip writers going."
"Drawing from Caroline's letters and other contemporary texts, Fraser shines a light on the struggles Caroline endured in her efforts to reunite with her children and navigate her financial status within a system that granted control of all of her funds, even money she earned with her pen, to her estranged husband as she maintained a successful career as a writer."
"This engagingly written, rigorously researched book will appeal to both feminist historians and readers who enjoy well-crafted portraits of historical figures who deserve more attention ..."
"Fraser's vivid character sketches and incisive analysis of legal, political, and rhetorical matters result in a winning study of an indefatigable crusader who turned a personal tragedy into a public triumph."
"Fraser seems on the whole to think that the feminists have now succeeded, but I'm inclined to agree with Atkinson's suggestion that it's a story that reveals that not enough has changed."
"It was, at least, a beginning."
"There have been other books about Caroline Norton, but Fraser's is the first to emphasise what a modern figure she is, portraying her not as a hapless victim but as a working mother and bestselling writer who refused to submit to what can only be called the patriarchy — a 'difficult' woman whose bloodymindedness improved the lot of other women."
"She thus perhaps sometimes assumes a little too much knowledge of a reader coming fresh to the period."
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