Mrs Robinson's Disgrace

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher was a surprise hit on its publication and Summerscale’s new title based on an intimate diary and a scandalous trial follows suit. The frisson of reading another’s diary, the salaciousness of eavesdropping in the early divorce courts and a serious examination of constraints on a Victorian wife are all here. Threaded through the narrative is the intriguing puzzle of did she, didn’t she? Was Isabella Robinson, neurotic and sexually repressed, seeking an outlet for her fantasy life in her diary or did she find an escape from her unhappy marriage in, as the novels say, The Arms of Another? For those interested in the contradictions inherent in the Victorian age, particularly the role of women or just those craving a good story this is an absorbing read.