Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
 Fantastic March 7, 2010
BookBug (Edinburgh)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
Bought this book based on the reviews as it was not the sort of historical book that I would normally choose. If you haven't read this yet, BUY IT NOW!! It's absolutely fantastic and does not just describe the marriage itself but lets you understand the 18th century legal context in how it was possible for such a clever woman to become trapped in a life of misery. Have never read anything so gripping.
reads like a novel February 25, 2010
tyler body (madeira)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I really love history and this is a real treat. It reads like a novel but having the advantage of knowing that it all took place. The historical detail is fascinating. If you like social history then you should love this. I also thought it is very well written and very easy to read.
Superb storytelling February 22, 2009
Patrick Kelly (York, England)
49 out of 53 found this review helpful
Why should we be interested in the marital trails and tribulations of an 18th century society lady? Because Wendy Moore's meticulously researched biography of Mary Eleanor Bowes tells us an enormous amount about the development of attitudes to marriage, to property and the position of women. But much more than that, Wedlock is a superb piece of storytelling which rescues Bowes and her ghastly husband from long forgotten archives and transforms them into living, breathing characters. The climax of this beautifully crafted book is the pursuit of the kidnapped Bowes by her friends and servants through the length and breadth of England.Told at a breakneck pace, you feel yourself to be galloping along behind Bowes' husband and his disreputable cronies, willing the flawed heroine to survive.
Thackeray turned this true story into a novel, Kubrick made it a film - but this is the genuine article and surpasses them all.
Fiction has nothing on the true life of Mary Eleanor Bowes March 23, 2009
History Fan (Staffordshire)
52 out of 58 found this review helpful
I finished this book as the government's latest initiative to institute a register for people convicted of domestic violence was announced. Rather apposite in view of the subject matter of "Wedlock".
In "Wedlock", Wendy Moore has written a book that, from the first page, engages the reader's attention. Whilst the story of Mary Eleanor Bowes and her infamous second husband, Andrew Robinson Stoney, is not new to 21st century readers (a biography appeared in 2006), in Ms Moore's book, the ordeal suffered by Mary Eleanor is brought vividly to life in often agonising detail. Ms Moore's research is impeccable, as the comprehensive notes and bibliography attest to, but instead of a dry recitation of events, she has woven a skilful and balanced narrative. Her sympathies lie firmly with Mary Eleanor but she does not deny that Mary Eleanor had flaws not least that she was not the best judge of male character.
Mary Eleanor was heiress to a huge fortune and, having suffered the loss of her father at an early age, was relatively unguided by any sensible relative as she made her debut in 18th Century society. She was a target for fortune hunters of any class and whilst her first marriage to a pillar of society left her the Countess of Strathmore (and incidentally, the forebear of our present Queen), as a rich young widow, she once again became fair game. Whilst she enjoyed her new found freedom, there was still no-one close to her who could bring sufficient authority to bear to stop her making a disastrous choice of Stoney as her second husband - a man without any redeeming features who was manipulative, plausible and devious and undoubtedly a misogynist. Gulled into thinking that he had sustained mortal injuries whilst fighting a duel to save her honour, she agreed to marry him on his "death bed" - only to rue the day she ever set eyes on him.
For 8 years, she effectually became his prisoner suffering insults and assaults almost daily. When finally, with the assistance of her maid and three other women servants, she escaped his control, she was left without income or home and was still estranged from the children of her first marriage and now from her second as well. Ignored by members of her own family on her escape, she was reduced to accepting charity from her servants and, in fear of her life, lived under an assumed name whilst her lawyer launched the first of the actions to separate her from her husband and regain her income from him.
Her fear of Stoney was well founded as 2 years after she escaped him, in an audacious attempt to bring her back under his control and effectively negate the legal actions she had brought against him, he abducted her. The story of her abduction and the chase across England to liberate her over eight fraught days is told in chapter 11 in a way that evokes the horror of the event to the reader.
Stoney used every available resource to blacken her name and intimidate her and her supporters. He used her own words (obtained under duress) to destroy her reputation. Even when finally committed to prison, he refused to give up and continued to pursue her through the courts, albeit without success. Today, he would probably be judged a vexatious litigant.
Ms Moore guides the modern reader through the effect of the laws and customs of eighteenth century England on women, which dictated that a woman, once married, was subsumed into the person of her husband, unable to own property and, in the few instances where a divorce was obtained, usually separated from any children of the marriage until such time as the children were independent enough to want to know their mother. For women who were in an abusive marriage often the only escape was death. Wendy Moore shows that Mary Eleanor was one of a courageous few women who fought back at the laws and social mores of Georgian England (albeit for personal reasons only) and set precedents that would eventually lead to the wide availability of divorce and finally, to the government's recent announcement.
For Mary Eleanor, whilst she eventually gained some much deserved peace and was happily reconciled with most of her children, she never really fulfilled her early promise and sadly was never to regain her privileged place in Georgian high society. She died at just 51, her health shattered by the abuse she had suffered. In her will, she requested that a statue be erected over her grave - the blindfolded figure of Justice. Sadly this was never done.
This book is enjoyable for so many reasons - the story, the research that Ms Moore has undertaken, the cracking pace of the narrative more usual in a novel and, refreshingly these days, a book that has been carefully proof read to ensure that no "typo's" appear.
The story of Mary Eleanor Bowes would make a splendid TV series or film with its cast of often awful characters (with that of the loathsome Andrew Robinson Stoney akin to a pantomime villain), its duels, abductions, and hair raising chases across England. Were it fiction, one would say that it was unbelievable - sadly it is a true story and probably not an isolated one. Who can tell how many others women were trapped in a marriage without the resources to escape the clutches of their "better" half?
Thrilling (so far) April 17, 2010
Patricia White (Kendal)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Although I haven't finished reading this yet, Amazon's prompt to comment must be answered now or I never will. I've been hooked on audiobooks and was looking out for this one, but only available in print at time of purchase. What luck: this is an excellent read. A real thriller, but more importantly a real eye-opener about Georgian life and times: ladies, forget any romantic dreams wishing you'd lived in those times.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 35
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