The Letters Of Caroline Norton To Lord Melbourne

This is the first volume of a three volume collection of the correspondence of Caroline Norton, covering the period July 1828-Deember 1837. The collection also includes an introduction and five commentaries by the editor, contextualising and embedding Caroline’s literary and political achievements within the narrative of her letters.

This is the second volume of a three volume collection of the correspondence of Caroline Norton, covering the period January 1838-November 1857. The collection also includes an introduction and five commentaries by the editor, contextualising and embedding Caroline’s literary and political achievements within the narrative of her letters.

As the first nineteenth century woman to successfully campaign for women’s rights legislation, Caroline Norton has been comparatively neglected and under-researched. There is, however, a current and growing interest in her life and work. This is a new three volume collection of the correspondence of Caroline Norton. The collection includes over 750 of her letters and also features an introduction by the editors, contextualising and embedding Caroline’s literary and political achievements within the narrative of her letters.

Award-winning historian Antonia Fraser brilliantly portrays a courageous and compassionate woman who refused to be curbed by the personal and political constraints of her time. Caroline Norton dazzled nineteenth-century society with her vivacity, her intelligence, her poetry, and in her role as an artist's muse. After her marriage in 1828 to the MP George Norton, she continued to attract friends and admirers to her salon in Westminster, which included the young Disraeli. Most prominent among her admirers was the widowed Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. Racked with jealousy, George Norton took the Prime Minister to court, suing him for damages on account of his 'Criminal Conversation' (adultery) with Caroline. A dramatic trial followed. Despite the unexpected and sensational result—acquittal—Norton was still able to legally deny Caroline access to her three children, all under seven. He also claimed her income as an author for himself, since the copyrights of a married woman belonged to her husband. Yet Caroline refused to despair. Beset by the personal cruelties perpetrated by her husband and a society whose rules were set against her, she chose to fight, not surrender. She channeled her energies in an area of much-needed reform: the rights of a married woman and specifically those of a mother. Over the next few years she campaigned tirelessly, achieving her first landmark victory with the Infant Custody Act of 1839. Provisions which are now taken for granted, such as the right of a mother to have access to her own children, owe much to Caroline, who was determined to secure justice for women at all levels of society from the privileged to the dispossessed.