In the first part of this book, Lawrence Stone provides a series of case-studies which paint a vivid picture of how individuals coped with the manifold uncertainties of the law of marriage before the Marriage Act of 1753. There are stories of unwise courtship, prenuptial pregnancies, forced marriages, and bigamy, told in intimate, often ribald detail.
The case-studies in the second part reveal how the break-up and dissolution of marriages was contrived before the first Divorce Act in 1857. Offering details of dramatic courtroom confrontations, secret negotiations, blackmail, and bribery, they provide sobering evidence of the huge gap between the enacted law and actual practice in early modern England.
- ISBN10 0192853082
- ISBN13 9780192853080
- Publish Date 9 February 1995 (first published 3 September 1992)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 April 1999
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Oxford Paperbacks
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 644
- Language English