Broken engagements : the action for breach of promise of marriage and the feminine ideal, 1800-1940 / Saskia Lettmaier.

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

72399

Breach of promise -- History.

Husband and wife -- History.

Betrothal -- Law and legislation.

Breach of promise -- History -- 19th century -- Great Britain.

Breach of promise -- History -- 20th century -- Great Britain.

Betrothal in literature.

Betrothal in motion pictures.

Women -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Great Britain.

Women -- Social conditions -- 20th century -- Great Britain.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Codifying womanhood : the nineteenth-century action for breach of promise of marriage as the legal expression of the ideal of true womanhood

A structural inconsistency : the true woman and the breach-of-promise plantiff

Breach of promise in the early Nineteenth Century (1800-50) : strategies of containment , a created inconsistency, and the aesthetic of the grotesque

Breach of promise in the high Victorian Period (1850-1900) : the inconsistency unveiled, pinchbeck angels, and the dominance of satire

Breach of promise in the Post-Victorian Period (1900-40) : a changing ideal the action's decline, and the symbolism of breach of promise.

Lettmaier explores ideals of femininity during the 19th and early 20th centuries by charting responses to broken engagements. Interweaving a history of the legal remedies for a broken promise of marriage with literary accounts from Dickens to Wodehouse, it offers an insight into attitudes to female identity.

Table of contents and index are taken from the published work with the permission of the publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010. (Oxford Scholarship Online). Mode of access: World Wide Web. System requirements: Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher) or Firefox 2.0 (or higher). Available as searchable text in HTML format. Access restricted to subscribing institutions.

9780199569977

xix, 209 p. ; 24 cm