From Same Sex Unions to Private Vows and Common Law, The Surprising Diversity of a Tradition
| Title: | A History of Marriage: From Same Sex Unions to Private Vows and Common Law, The Surprising Diversity of a Tradition |
| Author(s): | Elizabeth Abbott |
| Publisher: | Penguin Canada |
| Published: | December 29, 2009 |
| Format: | epub |
| Date Added: | May 25, 2023 |
| calibre ID: | e-2387 |
| Read: | No |
| Date Finished: | n/a |
About the Book
A History of Marriage, published by Penguin Canada in 2009, is a non-fiction book by Elizabeth Abbott, the Canadian author of A History of Celibacy (1999) and A History of Mistresses (2003) that combines general history and personal histories of marriage. The book is a study of mostly North American rituals of courting, nuptials, marriage, sex, child-raising and divorce. Some topics covered are relative ages at which various societies from Chinese to Mormon married off their girls; details of the satisfying marriage of Martin Luther and former nun Katharina von Bora; the ruptured family units of Native American children removed to residential schools; the popularity of so-called Boston marriages (depicted by Henry James in The Bostonians) between like-minded women who resisted conventional marriage but weren’t necessarily lesbian; and the scarcity of sponges used for contraception by Northern women during the Civil War because of the cut-off in supply from Florida. A History of Marriage was a finalist for the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction.
Source: Wikipedia
What does the “tradition of marriage” really look like? In A History of Marriage, Elizabeth Abbott paints an often surprising picture of this most public, yet most intimate, institution. Ritual of romance, or social obligation? Eternal bliss, or cult of domesticity? Abbott reveals a complex tradition that includes same-sex unions, arranged marriages, dowries, self-marriages, and child brides. Marriage—in all its loving, unloving, decadent, and impoverished manifestations—is revealed here through Abbott’s infectious curiosity.
Source: Goodreads
Review
A History of Marriage by Elizabeth Abbott
March 1, 2011
An engaging mishmash of general history and personal histories of marriage, by the Canadian author of A History of Celibacy (1999) and A History of Mistresses (2003).
Pick any page from this study of mostly North American rituals of courting, nuptials, marriage, sex, child-raising and divorce, and you could a wide range of intriguing nuggets: relative ages at which various societies from Chinese to Mormon married off their girls; details of the satisfying marriage of Martin Luther and former nun Katharina von Bora; the ruptured family units of Native American children removed to residential schools; the popularity of so-called Boston marriages (depicted nicely by Henry James in The Bostonians) between like-minded women who resisted conventional marriage but weren’t necessarily lesbian; the scarcity of sponges used for contraception by Northern women during the Civil War because of the cut-off in supply from Florida. Historian Abbott (Sugar: A Bittersweet History, 2008, etc.) divides her work into two amorphous thematic halves—“The Way We (Really) Were” and “The Way We Think We Were and the Way We Think We Are”—though she doesn’t pursue a didactic thread; instead, she weaves stories and facts in a kind of loosely fluid narrative that makes pleasant reading. The author has a flair for sweetening the facts with her palatable style, and can elegantly move from examining the elusive meaning of Jan Van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait to relating the 19th-century legal trials and writings of women’s-rights advocate Elizabeth Packard, whose husband imprisoned her in a mental asylum. Indeed, the leitmotif of this work may be the egregiously powerless position of the female in all societies—as girl, unmarried woman, wife, mother, divorcee, widow. In the last chapters, Abbott looks at some of the issues surrounding battering and abuse, divorce, taxation and gay marriage (she’s all for it). Ultimately, she wonders: Does marriage have a future? A rich tapestry and colorful snapshot of an evolving institution—includes a helpful selective bibliography.
Source: Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Elizabeth Abbott
Twitter: @ElizAbbott
ELIZABETH ABBOTT is the bestselling author of A History of Celibacy, A History of Mistresses, A History of Marriage, and Sugar. Abbott has written for numerous media, including The Huffington Post, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, and The Gazette (Montreal). She lives in Toronto.
Source: Penguin Random House
Mark Joseph Jochim 