A review of Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace by Kate Summerscale

For expansion of facts in the cleanest of prose: Kate Summerscale’s Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady (Bloomsbury, 2013) is the very opposite of the ubiquitous Country Diary of an Edwardian Diary. Summerscale unpacked the diarist’s thoughts on her unhappy marriage, her adulterous desires, and her part in the first divorce trial following the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 where Isabella Robinson’s diary was its central (and unreliable) evidence. Though Summerscale could not access the original diary, she expertly wove facts from trial reports much like the detective of her previous book (Mr Whicher), pulling in cameos of fascinating, famous, or unknown Victorians – and the wider response of England and Europe – who were happy to cast the blame on a dysfunctional uterus than lay censure on any man. The best thing of all is Summerscale’s forensic prose.

Available to buy at Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale | Waterstones