Writer's Library: Married Women’s Property in England

Married Women’s Separate Property in England, 1660 – 1833 

by Susan Staves. 1990, Harvard University Press, 290 pages

Reviewed by Alice VonKannon

I really struck gold when I found this book. It was a topic that had always confused me, women’s property rights, but one you’ll get into in just about any Regency that touches on marriage contracts, widowhood, dowries or related subjects. And what Regency romance never touches on any of these?

 Yes, there’s some legalese in the writing, but it’s not unintelligible. The author jokes about this herself in the preface, that historians are not lawyers, and may have difficulty with some of the concepts. To illustrate this, she quotes from a Cambridge monograph on the subject: In attempting to explain the invalidity of a gift over of a remainder for the life of the tenant in tail in the conveyance of an entail, Coke argued that the remainder must be void.

Little wonder, as Staves says, that women of the period hated getting into the whole messy subject of their property settlement, and often, perhaps foolishly, left it to their father’s lawyers. You, however, don’t have to be a lawyer to understand it as explained in this book, though it’s not a popular history, and you may want to keep your dictionary at hand. Usually, with the avalanche of period money terms, from “pin money” to “jointure,” the author will explain the term before using it for the first time. And though you may wish to, it’s not really necessary to read the book in its entirety to get the info you need, since it’s arranged mostly by time period, and has an excellent index. Also, Ms. Staves often highlights attitudes from literature and plays of the period to make her point, making it more accessible.

It’s out of print, of course, which can be tougher when it’s an academic rather than a popular history. However, at the moment there are twenty-four copies of it on ABE Books, a good sign of general availability, and most are reasonably priced.

These are very confusing waters, choppy and changeable – what was true in 1780 might not be true at all in your story that takes place in 1812, and blithe blogs speaking in general can get it wrong. When I wrote a scene for my last book about dowry rights, with a character protecting a young girl from a potential intemperate husband, I felt much more confident having read this. A keeper.

Pride, Prejudice and Paper Knives

 

Lizzie isn't holding a cake knife. Or a letter opener.

Guys, this one is way cool.

Ever see the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier? Great MGM film, with a polished Aldous Huxley screenplay. I’d seen it about a dozen times. The last time it was on, I dropped what I was doing to enjoy a famous scene again, after Elizabeth has barged into Netherfield Park to care for her sister Jane, who’s ill. All and sundry, Darcy, the Bingleys and Elizabeth, are gathered in the Netherfield library. The dialog, I’m sure fans will remember, is charmingly acidic. (“I’m no longer surprised, Mr. Darcy, at your knowing only six accomplished women; I wonder at your knowing any.”) Greer Garson is very relaxed, about to read the book in her hand. What she does with it always escaped me - I was laughing too hard. But watch the scene carefully, as I finally did. 

She’s perusing the open book, and finds a funky page. Then she reaches for this flat thing on the desk, the size of a big feather, but solid. She slips it into the book and then flicks it smoothly up the page. I suddenly realized she wasn’t turning the page. She was cutting it.

Books used to be made by hand, full sheets of paper with two or four or eight pages printed on it that were then folded for binding, and it was common for some to accidentally remain uncut. They were like folded pamphlets before being gathered and bound, with names like quarto, octavo, or just folio. When I started collecting old books, I’d see this problem now and again, a dead giveaway that the book had never been read. One rainy weekend I was trying to get through a 1912 edition of The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem, and about every dozen or so pages I was coming across one that, to my annoyance, couldn’t be read because it hadn’t been cut. Cutting them with scissors was a nightmare. I kept accidentally slicing into pages, because I needed something much sharper.

Seeing this scene again set me on a quest, and I finally found the answer, in the only book ever published on the subject – Reading and Writing Accessories, by a very clever New Zealand gentleman named Ian Spellerberg. He set the antiques world on its ear in 2016, when dealers supposedly knowledgable about history were referring to these odd devices as “letter openers” for an age that didn’t use envelopes as a rule. Spellerberg properly identified them as “paper knives,” a large, flat, sharp-edged device that was a common part of a Regency desk set. You slipped it in between the pages, moved it to the fold, drew up and out, and easily razor cut those uncut pages. Brilliant! You can still find versions of them in online stationers, though they tend not to be so elegant. Most look more like X-acto knives.

As far as I know I’ve never seen a paper knife being used in any other films, including the many versions of Jane Austen I’ve seen. MGM had great art directors on staff, but it helped that some of these guys were old enough to remember the 19th century. In the end, it’s amazing how quickly everyday things are forgotten as technology changes. Amazing how many things that were an ordinary part of my own life are now museum pieces. Go on YouTube and watch two teenage boys try to figure out how to use a rotary dial phone. It will make you feel very old.

Writer's Library: Learning Austenese

 

The Annotated 'Pride and Prejudice' 

by Jane Austen, Annotated by David M. Shapard

Reviewed by Alice VonKannon

Were you confused when Miss Bingley recommended to Elizabeth an express be sent to town for a doctor? Wonder what Austen meant when she said that, at Netherfield, Mr. Bingley had a good house and the liberty of a manor? Ever wonder what a coppice-wood is, or a mews, for that matter? Historian and Austen expert David M. Shapard explains it all, quickly and clearly in The Annotated Pride and Prejudice. He offers valuable insights into the subtleties of the language of the period, while giving delightful details on clothes, homes, food, shopping, money, travel, war, politics, social status and just about anything you can think of, all of it illuminated by wonderful, well-chosen period engravings and artwork.

Actually, there are five more of these annotated versions of Austen: Persuasion, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey, hitting all her major novels. And they’re not out of print! All are still available in oversize paperback editions on Amazon, for between fifteen and twenty dollars.

For an Austen newbie, these books might be a necessity. For a researcher into Regency life, they’re pure joy. Open the book and you’ll find the complete text on the left side, and on the right a treasure trove of notes, definitions, and helpful general information. I’m probably like a lot of people in that, the first time I read Pride and Prejudice, I was sixteen and tended to just skim over any term I didn’t understand, trying to judge its meaning by context in order to simply enjoy the story. Now, so many years later, I know a great deal about the period, but with Shapard, there’s always something new to learn.

Is there a downside? Okay, I’ll be honest; I prefer to read the book itself in a normal edition. It can drive you a little crazy, stopping every minute or so to look to the right and read the comments. And trust me, the comments are so good, they can’t be resisted. Me, I’ll read a few chapters, and while they’re still fresh, pull out the annotated version and scan the notes. That way you still have the proper rhythm of the read without its being interrupted, but you’ll get the insights, as well.

Letter From Mollie

One of my favorite pop history books is the 1981 Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People, a project so big Irving Wallace drafted the whole family in to help. It's an intelligent and wide-ranging book. But one thing ticks me off. So many famous people had such miserable sex lives that he added a short, charming final chapter highlighting some famously happy marriages, including Jack Benny, Robert E. Lee, Louis Pasteur and Walt Disney. And when I ordered a friend the new edition that came out in 2008, I found that this chapter had, for some incomprehensible reason, been axed. Why? My guess is that the original publishers, Delacorte Press, a division of the mighty Random House, had no interest in doing a new edition, and the politically-correct mavens at the ultra-hip Feral House Publishing had no interest in the subject of what makes a happy marriage. In fact, I’ve no doubt the whole idea of a happy marriage offended them.

The closer for this lost chapter was a postscript called Letter From Mollie. Most victims of a public education think all sex was missionary position and just plain lousy until 1968, despite ample evidence to the contrary. This sparkling bit of evidence was written around 1882, from a young newlywed named Mollie, who lived "back East." Having promised to let her cousin Julia in Northern Mines, California, know what to expect on her wedding night, she mailed a graphic and delightful description of her own. It made me feel so great, and I wanted to share it.

It is reproduced here as in the Wallace book, with most of its punctuation, or lack of it, in place. Spelling, too, was more a matter of opinion in those days. For me, it only adds to the charm of this remarkable billet doux. However, I did throw in a couple periods, as an aid to the first-time reader.

My dear cousin Julia

I am now with much pleasure about to fulfill my promise of writeing to you after the consumation of my marriage with Albert so you may have some Idea of the thing when you and Harry are united which I hope will be soon. You will please remember this is strictly confidential if we were not so intimate I would not write so plain but you know when we were together what one did the other knew so I will keep nothing back from you. Albert and I where married day before yesterday our minister E. Hodge performed the ceremony. All of our folks were present and nothing occured to mar the pleasures of the day all went off as weddings generaly do with fun frolicking cackes & wine &c. 

But oh dear Julia you can but faintly comprehend the felicity I have experienced since that ever to be remembered night. I thought I had some Idea of the enjoyment of married life but I was a novice in the mystries I will now endevor to give you a faint description of our married life. The first night I lay with my dear Albert a thrilling sensation shot with the rapidity of lightning through my entire system. Oh-the bliss of that moment So sensitively alive it excelled any thing I had ever experienced it was superlatively nice. We lay a few moments enfolded in each others embrace our naked bodies in close contact for by some unaccountiable means my night clothes had all slipped above my waist. My blood boiled and rushed through my frame like molten lava my prespiration ceased entirely at entervals and my head throbed almost to bursting. A dizziness amounting almost to stupeifeication over came me a felcitiy not to be expressed in words. My breath seemed to leave my body I felt paralysed and lay motionless and calm as some southern sea on a still summer morn. When as to test the utmost tension of my nerves Albert took my hand and by degrees (I did not resist I suspected his intentions) in tremulous excitement conveyed it down his body until it came in contact with his-0! Heavens the thrilling sensation of that moment you know what I mean. It was swollen to an enormous size my hand immediatley and tenaciously grasped it though I declare it was as much as I could do to fairly span it. The soft velvet like feeling of its head gave additional impulse to my already excited feelings When to cap the climax of my felicity he gently raised himself on one knee and with the other between my thighs he separated my legs so as to admit his body between them and then in a moment he was gently heaving up and down with an undulating motion when I felt it enter my person. When the head entered it appeared to me that I was attacked with a spasm for I raised with sudden emotion as he bore down on me and this mutualy kept up had the effect of driving it quite into my person and then a shock suddenly passed through me as if from a galvanic battery a dizziness overcame me my eyes closed my bosom heaved my arms relaxed my perspiration ceased I was actually gone for I fainted. 

When conciousness returned Albert was hugging & kissing me clasping me in his arms in the estacy of the moment I forgot all the world except my dear Albert we lay quite exhausted for about twenty minutes when he again conveyed my hand to that Dear member that had given me so much pleasure. It was some what less in size but as soon as it felt the pressure of my hand it resumed its original proportion. Albert made another attempt to raise himself upon me but I begged him more from delicacy than disinclination to desist wich kind soul as he is he did but I could not long resist for he thrust in between my thighs and kissed me so that longer resistance was impossible and I once more yeilded to his solicitation. I did not faint this time though the pleasurable sensations were more acute than the first. I would sooner have risked my soul's salvation than to have had Albert withdraw from his embrace. I was some what sore and stiff in my parts next day but at present I feel as chirp as a squirrel. I think he has done the work for me I think I am pregnant. Now dear Julia the day is coming to a close and I must conclude this letter for I expect Albert at any moment and I would not for the world have him know what I have been writing to you so good bye for the present and in my next I will tell you more of the pleasures of married life. Give my love to Anna T Uncle and inquiring friends. 

I remain your affectionate cousin Mollie

Upcoming Novel Wins 'Hearts Through History' Contest for Best Character!

I'm so excited! The upcoming third book my the 'Unbound Sea' trilogy, A Price Above Rubies, has just won the Legend Award Category of the Hearts Through History: Romance Through the Ages 2024 Contest! The Legend Award is given for the best character in a pre-publication historical romance, and was awarded for my lead character, Major Ashton DeWare!

This award means so much to me because I work so hard to create complex and memorable characters, and the judges for the Hearts Through History group in the Romance Writers of America are  fellow authors and publishers.