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Living in sin : cohabiting as husband and wife in nineteenth-century England / Ginger S. Frost.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Gender in historyPublication details: Manchester New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.Description: 1 online resource (vii, 264 pages)Content type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9781847791412
  • 1847791417
  • 9781781700723
  • 1781700729
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Living in sin.DDC classification:
  • 306.841094209034 22
LOC classification:
  • HQ803.5 .F76 2008
Online resources:
Contents:
Cohabitation, illegitimacy, and the law in England, 1750-1914 -- Violence and cohabitation in the courts -- Affinity and consanguinity -- Bigamy and cohabitation -- Adulterous cohabitation -- The 'other Victorians' : the demimonde and the very poor -- Cross-class cohabitation -- Radical couples, 1790-1850 -- Radical couples, 1850-1914.
Action note:
  • digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve
Review: "Living in sin is the first book-length study of cohabitation in nineteenth-century England, based on research into the lives of hundreds of couples. 'Common-law' marriages did not have any legal basis, so the Victorian courts had to wrestle with unions that resembled marriage in everyway, yet did not meet its most basic requirements. Unsurprisingly, the courts reacted with ambiguity, upholding cohabitation in some instances and punishing it in others. By challenging the definition of marriage through their actions, couples reformed the state's dealings with it; nevertheless, cohabitees never had legal status and this had serious repercussions for women and children." "The majority of those who lived in irregular unions did so because they could not marry legally. Others, though, chose not to marry, either from indifference, class differences, or because they dissented from marriage for philosophical reasons. This book looks at each motivation in turn, highlighting class, gender and generational differences, as well as the reactions of wider kin and community. Cohabitation was not the same as marriage, but many family and friends accepted at least some irregular unions, most readily in the working classes. At the same time, the sexual double standard meant that women suffered more than men from the disadvantages of 'free unions'." "Frost shows how these couples slowly widened the definition of legal marriage, preparing the way for the more substantial changes of the twentieth century, making this a valuable resource for all those interested in Gender and Social History."--Jacket
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
eBook eBook e-Library EBSCO Social Science Available
Total holds: 0

Cohabitation, illegitimacy, and the law in England, 1750-1914 -- Violence and cohabitation in the courts -- Affinity and consanguinity -- Bigamy and cohabitation -- Adulterous cohabitation -- The 'other Victorians' : the demimonde and the very poor -- Cross-class cohabitation -- Radical couples, 1790-1850 -- Radical couples, 1850-1914.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 236-254) and index.

"Living in sin is the first book-length study of cohabitation in nineteenth-century England, based on research into the lives of hundreds of couples. 'Common-law' marriages did not have any legal basis, so the Victorian courts had to wrestle with unions that resembled marriage in everyway, yet did not meet its most basic requirements. Unsurprisingly, the courts reacted with ambiguity, upholding cohabitation in some instances and punishing it in others. By challenging the definition of marriage through their actions, couples reformed the state's dealings with it; nevertheless, cohabitees never had legal status and this had serious repercussions for women and children." "The majority of those who lived in irregular unions did so because they could not marry legally. Others, though, chose not to marry, either from indifference, class differences, or because they dissented from marriage for philosophical reasons. This book looks at each motivation in turn, highlighting class, gender and generational differences, as well as the reactions of wider kin and community. Cohabitation was not the same as marriage, but many family and friends accepted at least some irregular unions, most readily in the working classes. At the same time, the sexual double standard meant that women suffered more than men from the disadvantages of 'free unions'." "Frost shows how these couples slowly widened the definition of legal marriage, preparing the way for the more substantial changes of the twentieth century, making this a valuable resource for all those interested in Gender and Social History."--Jacket

Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL

Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. MiAaHDL

http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

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Print version record.

English.

Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK). WlAbNL

Added to collection customer.56279.3

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