Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: the Private Diary of a Victorian Lady - Kate Summerscale

Although this book is centred essentially on one woman’s diary and her subsequent divorce case, it reads as so much more.

It delivers fascinating insights into such an incredible era in our history. The context Kate Summerscale provides surrounding her story builds a rich picture of the times: attitudes towards women, the role of a wife, sex, marriage, reputation and adultery – all of which are directly linked to the case. These sit within the wider backdrop of art, literature and an age of discovery in terms of groundbreaking medical advances and new practices. These include the new fashion for hydrotherapy and also phrenology, with some great examples of conclusions drawn about an individual’s personality and temperament based on the examination of the size of their skull.

A number of familiar Victorian characters also appear including Dickens, Nightingale, Darwin, Wordsworth and Charlie Field – the inspiration behind Inspector Bucket in Dickens ”Bleak House”, who also manages to play a role in the case itself. London features almost as a character in its own right – with the River Thames freezing over in the winter, and then almost boiling in the summer and filling the air with its rotten stench, forcing parts of the House of Commons to be evacuated at one point due to the smell.

The growing importance of a journal and its history is also an interesting part of this book, exploring what people record and, more significantly, for what purpose. Whether you believe that her journal was a work of fiction or a true account of her life, you can’t deny that Isabella is an extraordinary woman living in extraordinary times. The idea that she may have actually wanted people to eventually read her journal adds another dimension to her character – and also helped me as a reader from feeling too voyeuristic about reading extracts from such a personal and private document!

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone who has an interest in such an exciting period of history and am now keen to read her previous books.