Kate Summerscale
History
I opened this book thinking it was fiction and then I was surprised to realize it’s actually non-fiction. Ooops! That’s okay, though. I liked the author’s last book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, so I figured this one would be good, too. Sadly, I was only half-right.
Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace tells the sordid tale of Isabella Robinson, who marries Henry Robinson after she is widowed. Unfortunately, the marriage is not a love match and Henry pretty much ignores her. So, in her diary, Isabella records all the interactions she has with various men, most of whom she develops crushes on. One in particular she begins an affair with and fills her journal with romantic ramblings and longings for her love. Then her husband finds the diary and demands a divorce (this is back in the 1850’s) and they must go to court where her scandalous entries are shared with the world.
This is all sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Too bad it’s not. Well, the first part is, where juicy excerpts of Isabella’s diary are quoted verbatim and Ms. Summerscale fills in the blanks. But then we get into the second half, the trial, and it gets kind of boring. I dislike trials in books to begin with, and witnessing all the odds and ends of a Victorian trial isn’t much better. The story limps along to a conclusion when the trial ends, and by that point, I was ready for the book to be over.
Ms. Summerscale is a good writer and the topic is interesting, but I just couldn’t get into Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace as much as I would have preferred. Oh, well. It’s a short book. And you can always skim like I did.
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