The Criminal Conversation of Mrs. Norton: Victorian England’s “Scandal of the Century” and the Fallen Socialite Who Changed Women’s Lives Forever

In the Queen’s English, “criminal conversation” meant adultery—a legal offense in Victorian England. Historian Atkinson (Elsie and Mairi Go to War) opens with an overview of the sensational 1836 London trial of Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, sued by George Norton for supposedly engaging in an affair with the latter’s wife, Caroline. Melbourne pleaded not guilty, and the jury agreed. The verdict secured Melbourne’s reputation, but the charge alone ruined Caroline’s, and George’s failed case made him a fool. Atkinson then pulls back to tell the workmanlike story of Caroline’s life and of the dearth of legal protections available to married women. A noted beauty and talented singer and poet, at 19 Caroline wed the dull barrister. George drank and abused his wife, while she developed a relationship with Melbourne. In 1836, George took their three children away from Caroline, as was his legal right, and filed the infamous charge against Melbourne. After the verdict, Caroline worked tirelessly to pass the Infant Custody Bill, the Matrimonial Causes (Divorce) Act, and the Married Women’s Act, all of which greatly increased women’s legal rights. Caroline’s friend Charles Dickens fictionalized these events in The Pickwick Papers, and while Atkinson doesn’t hold a candle to Boz, this is still an engaging history. 23 b&w photos. (Sept.)