Courtship and Marriage in Victorian England

Jennifer Phegley is professor of English at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO.

• Figure 1.1. "Leap Year!"Figure 1.2. "A Future Husband Seen through the Medium of Repugnance."Figure 1.3. "The New Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, Westminster Hall."Figure 2.1. "September.—Society Yachting" and "October.—Society in the Field."Figure 2.2. "Kind and Considerate."Figure 2.3. "November.—Society Passing a Dull Day at the Country House."Figure 3.1. "Matrimonial Advertisements. No. 1—Araminta Brown."Figure 3.2. "Matrimonial Advertisements. No. 3—Miss Aurora Wailboan."Figure 3.3. "Pretty Innocent!"Figure 3.4. "A Caution."Figure 4.1. "A Panorama of a Fashionable Wedding."Figure 4.2. "Wedding Dress."Figure 4.3. William Spooner's panoramic view of the Queen's wedding procession.Figure 4.4. Honiton lace wedding dress and veil.Figure 4.5. Satin dress, trimmed with applied beading, chenille tassels, and needle lace.Figure 4.6. Silk damask waistcoat.Figure 4.7. Double-breasted wool frock coat.Figure 4.8. "The Happy Pair Then Left Town."Figure 5.1. "The Haunted Bachelor."Figure 5.2. "Illustrations of Humbug.—No. 1."Figure 5.3. "Is Marriage a Failure?"

Numerous illustrations and a marriage law chronology enliven the text, and the bibliography is notable for its bounty of nineteenth-century source material. Phegley's lucid discussion of the Victorian marriage market does indeed illustrate the consistent rhetorical focus on the companionate ideal, despite the plethora of ways in which Victorians sought partnership.