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colorfulleo92's review against another edition
4.0
I've read a few. Books from Antonia Fraser and everyone has gotten 4 stars. Very informative and keeps being intresting through the whole book without feeling info dumpy. It's easy to read and get invested in. I didn't knew much or at all by Caroline Norton before picking it up. I've only read about women I knew quite a lot about before from her. But this was as equally as intresting.
anisha_inkspill's review against another edition
4.0
I came across Coraline Norton when I was doing some side reading to [b: The Second Sex (Vintage Classics) |22604552|The Second Sex (Vintage Classics)|Simone de Beauvoir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428760765l/22604552._SY75_.jpg|879666], whom Simone de Beauvoir makes no mention of but I discovered Coraline Norton in a Kindle search of books downloaded on my device.
Listening to this reminded me how little rights women had in Caroline Norton’s time. Caroline Norton, the granddaughter of the playwright Richard Sheridan, lived in 1800s, England. Antonia Fraser’s biography draws Caroline Norton as a vivacious, intelligent woman who campaigns for the rights of mothers after her ex-husband, George Norton, denies her access to her children.
When, in 1830s Caroline Norton succeeds in changing the custody laws in England, it’s a bitter victory as it gives her no access to her own children, her ex-husband has moved their children to Scotland, where this law does not apply.
Antonia Fraser also shows the lengths George Norton goes to make Caroline Norton’s life difficult and smear her social reputation.
For the last few months of her life, Caroline Norton finds happiness in a second marriage, Antonio Fraser says this is what she has always wanted, along with being a mother to her children.
This was an inspiring audiobook, reminding me how easy it is to overlook women like Caroline Norton and the difference they have made.
Listening to this reminded me how little rights women had in Caroline Norton’s time. Caroline Norton, the granddaughter of the playwright Richard Sheridan, lived in 1800s, England. Antonia Fraser’s biography draws Caroline Norton as a vivacious, intelligent woman who campaigns for the rights of mothers after her ex-husband, George Norton, denies her access to her children.
When, in 1830s Caroline Norton succeeds in changing the custody laws in England, it’s a bitter victory as it gives her no access to her own children, her ex-husband has moved their children to Scotland, where this law does not apply.
Antonia Fraser also shows the lengths George Norton goes to make Caroline Norton’s life difficult and smear her social reputation.
For the last few months of her life, Caroline Norton finds happiness in a second marriage, Antonio Fraser says this is what she has always wanted, along with being a mother to her children.
This was an inspiring audiobook, reminding me how easy it is to overlook women like Caroline Norton and the difference they have made.
caidyn's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Interesting read! I liked that this one connected, in some ways, with Lady Caroline Lamb. I didn't catch on until they mentioned Melbourne was her widowed husband. But, this Caroline was very interesting and I liked learning a bit about her.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Domestic abuse
bookslovejenna's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Five things about The Case of the Married Woman by Antonia Fraser 📚📚📚📚📚
1. “From time immemorial, changes in the laws of nations have been brought about by individual examples of oppression. Such examples cannot be an important, for they are, and ever will be, the little hinges on which the great doors of justice are made to turn.” Caroline Norton writing to Queen Victoria, 1855.
2. A young woman, having lost her true love, is pushed into marriage with a physically and emotionally abusive man who now owns her and everything she has or ever will have including the proceeds of her writing career and her children. After years of abuse she tries to leave him and he accuses her of adultery with Lord Melbourne.
3. Though the trial clears their names, she cannot divorce her husband and he removes her children from her. The youngest dies. By law, she has no recourse within her marriage. Thus she brings her fight into the public eye.
4. Using her connections in politics and the literary world (Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charles Dickens…who she spent many a Christmas with!…Thackeray…) she makes a real real contribution to two causes that subsequent generations have come to take for granted: infant custody rights for the mother and property rights for married women.
5. Mary Shelley faced her own custody battle over her son Percy after the death of his father Percy Bysshe, Shelley. Sheley’s father tried to use the law to take her son away from her. In Mary Shelley‘s own words: “There seems to be something incomprehensible in a state of society that should admit to the propriety, or rather, enforce the necessity of a boy of nine being separated from all maternal care.”
1. “From time immemorial, changes in the laws of nations have been brought about by individual examples of oppression. Such examples cannot be an important, for they are, and ever will be, the little hinges on which the great doors of justice are made to turn.” Caroline Norton writing to Queen Victoria, 1855.
2. A young woman, having lost her true love, is pushed into marriage with a physically and emotionally abusive man who now owns her and everything she has or ever will have including the proceeds of her writing career and her children. After years of abuse she tries to leave him and he accuses her of adultery with Lord Melbourne.
3. Though the trial clears their names, she cannot divorce her husband and he removes her children from her. The youngest dies. By law, she has no recourse within her marriage. Thus she brings her fight into the public eye.
4. Using her connections in politics and the literary world (Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charles Dickens…who she spent many a Christmas with!…Thackeray…) she makes a real real contribution to two causes that subsequent generations have come to take for granted: infant custody rights for the mother and property rights for married women.
5. Mary Shelley faced her own custody battle over her son Percy after the death of his father Percy Bysshe, Shelley. Sheley’s father tried to use the law to take her son away from her. In Mary Shelley‘s own words: “There seems to be something incomprehensible in a state of society that should admit to the propriety, or rather, enforce the necessity of a boy of nine being separated from all maternal care.”
sophronisba's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
I didn't think that Fraser's prose was quite as good as her usual work, but the story that this book tells is riveting, although terribly sad. Once you read about Caroline Norton you will never forget her.
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