Jennifer Aston is Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University, UK.Olive Anderson was Professor of History at Westfield College, University of London, UK.

[This] volume is a testament to Anderson's original research and to Aston's achievement in developing that work and bringing the project to publication ... The depth and breadth of research behind this unusual collaboration are impressive. As the first major study to explain and quantify the significance of Section 21, the book illuminates an overlooked dimension of married women’s lives under coverture.

• IntroductionPart I1. ‘That Useful Exotic from France’: Mid-Victorian Personalities, Politics, Culture, and How the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 Reached the English Statute Book2. What Was the Law of ‘Economic Divorce’?Part II3. What was the Machinery for ‘Divorce Before Magistrates’?4. How Widespread was the Use of ‘Economic Divorce’ through Section 21 Orders in Victorian England and Wales?Part III5. Experiences of Desertion and Strategies of Independence in Mid-nineteenth-century London and Lancashire6. Experiences of Applying for ‘Economic Divorce’ in Mid-nineteenth-century London and Lancashire7. Traversing ‘this dangerous ground’: Deserted Wives and the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial CausesAfterword

Jennifer Aston is Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University, UK.Olive Anderson was Professor of History at Westfield College, University of London, UK.

[This] volume is a testament to Anderson's original research and to Aston's achievement in developing that work and bringing the project to publication ... The depth and breadth of research behind this unusual collaboration are impressive. As the first major study to explain and quantify the significance of Section 21, the book illuminates an overlooked dimension of married women’s lives under coverture.

• IntroductionPart I1. ‘That Useful Exotic from France’: Mid-Victorian Personalities, Politics, Culture, and How the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 Reached the English Statute Book2. What Was the Law of ‘Economic Divorce’?Part II3. What was the Machinery for ‘Divorce Before Magistrates’?4. How Widespread was the Use of ‘Economic Divorce’ through Section 21 Orders in Victorian England and Wales?Part III5. Experiences of Desertion and Strategies of Independence in Mid-nineteenth-century London and Lancashire6. Experiences of Applying for ‘Economic Divorce’ in Mid-nineteenth-century London and Lancashire7. Traversing ‘this dangerous ground’: Deserted Wives and the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial CausesAfterword

Jennifer Aston is Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University, UK.Olive Anderson was Professor of History at Westfield College, University of London, UK.

[This] volume is a testament to Anderson's original research and to Aston's achievement in developing that work and bringing the project to publication ... The depth and breadth of research behind this unusual collaboration are impressive. As the first major study to explain and quantify the significance of Section 21, the book illuminates an overlooked dimension of married women’s lives under coverture.

• IntroductionPart I1. ‘That Useful Exotic from France’: Mid-Victorian Personalities, Politics, Culture, and How the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 Reached the English Statute Book2. What Was the Law of ‘Economic Divorce’?Part II3. What was the Machinery for ‘Divorce Before Magistrates’?4. How Widespread was the Use of ‘Economic Divorce’ through Section 21 Orders in Victorian England and Wales?Part III5. Experiences of Desertion and Strategies of Independence in Mid-nineteenth-century London and Lancashire6. Experiences of Applying for ‘Economic Divorce’ in Mid-nineteenth-century London and Lancashire7. Traversing ‘this dangerous ground’: Deserted Wives and the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial CausesAfterword