Bleak Houses. Lisa Surridge

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      BLEAK

      HOUSES

      BLEAK

      HOUSES

      Marital Violence in Victorian Fiction

      LISA SURRIDGE

      OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS

      Athens

      Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

       www.ohio.edu/oupress

      © 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 ™

      12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1

      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

       List of Illustrations

       Acknowledgments

       List of Abbreviations

       Introduction

       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 0.1. Sidney Paget, “I Am the Wife of Sir Eustace Brackenstall,” illustration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange,” 1904

       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 1.5. George Cruikshank, “Sikes attempting to destroy his dog,” illustration for Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1837–39

       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