BLEAK
HOUSES
BLEAK
HOUSES
Marital Violence in Victorian Fiction
LISA SURRIDGE
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
Athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2005 by Ohio University Press
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Surridge, Lisa A. (Lisa Anne), 1963–
Bleak houses : marital violence in Victorian fiction / Lisa Surridge.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8214-1642-1 (cloth : acid-free paper) — ISBN 0-8214-1643-X (pbk. : acid-free paper)
1. English fiction—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Marriage in literature. 3. Domestic fiction, English—History and criticism. 4. Family violence in literature. 5. Abused women in literature. 6. Child abuse in literature. 7. Violence in literature.
I. Title.
PR878.M36S87 2005
823'.8093543—dc22
2005010296
CONTENTS
1. Private Violence in the Public Eye: The Early Writings of Charles Dickens
2. Domestic Violence and Middle-Class Manliness: Dombey and Son
3. From Regency Violence to Victorian Feminism: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
4. The Abused Woman and the Community: “Janet’s Repentance”
5. Strange Revelations: The Divorce Court, the Newspaper, and The Woman in White
6. The Private Eye and the Public Gaze: He Knew He Was Right
7. Marital Violence and the New Woman: The Wing of Azrael
8. “Are Women Protected?” Sherlock Holmes and the Violent Home
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 0.2. “Woman’s Wrongs,” 1874
Figures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. Details from “Handy Phrenology,” 1848
Figure 1.4. “The Gin Drop,” 1843
Figure 2.1. Illustration for “Panel for the Protection of Ladies,” 1853
Figure 2.2. “Useful Sunday Literature for the Masses; or, Murder Made Familiar,” 1849
Figure 2.3. Hablôt K. Browne, “Mr. Carker in his hour of triumph,” illustration for Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, 1846–48
Figure 3.1. William Hogarth, “First Stage of Cruelty,” 1750–51
Figure 3.2. William Hogarth, “Cruelty in Perfection,” 1750–51
Figure 3.3. “A pair of black eyes,” 1843
Figure 3.4. “Doing What He Likes with His Hone,” 1841
Figure 3.5. R. Seymour, “The Dying Clown,” illustration for Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836–37
Figure 4.1. “The Expressions of the Hand,” 1856
Figure 4.2. Illustration for the 1868 stereotyped edition of George Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life
Figure 5.1. “The New Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, Westminster Hall,” 1858
Figure 5.2. Illustration for “Divorce A Vinculo,” 1860
Figure 5.3. “The Case according to the Petitioner’s statement,” 1860
Figure 5.4. “The Case according to the Respondent’s statement,” 1860
Figure 5.5. Illustration for “Divorce A Vinculo,” 1860
Figure 8.1. “Is Marriage a Failure? As a Rule—Yes,” 1891
Figure 8.2. “For Assaulting His Wife,” 1891
Figure 8.3. “He Fell Senseless to the Ground,” 1894
Figure 8.4. “She Fell Quivering to the Ground,” 1892
Figure 8.5. Sidney Paget, “Mrs. Stapleton Sank upon the Floor,” illustration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” 1902
Figure 8.6. Sidney Paget, “A Wild-Eyed and Frantic Young Man Burst into the Room,” illustration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder,” 1903 241
Figure 8.7. Sidney Paget, “I Could See by Holmes’s Face That He Was Much Puzzled,” illustration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange,” 1904
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the University of Victoria for research leaves in 1998 and 2002, and for grant money for research assistance. My thanks go especially to the student assistants themselves: Lori Emerson, Treava Kellington, Anna Kelly, Daniel Martin, Kelly Pitman, and Matt Thomson. I am also grateful to Darlene Hollingsworth and Diana Rutherford at the Department of English at the