a history of marriage by elizabeth abbott

On one level, reading this book is like indulging in night after night of delicious gossip, and just as riveting. There are mistresses as the muses of artists, the intellectual equals of philosophers, the molls of gangsters and ‘trophy dolls’. Story after story: Abbott unfolds the history of Hitler's mistress Eva Braun We meet delightful Nell Gwynne, notorious Lola Montez, Lord Byron’s three mistresses, Hitler’s Eva Braun, and far too many more to list. The concubines of the ancient world and the East had little choice, and their stories are very different from the sophisticated and famous mistresses of European history, from Madame de Pompadour to Marilyn Monroe.Įlizabeth Abbott unfolds story after story - absorbing chronicles of mistresses throughout the ages, real life and (some) fictional.

What makes a woman accept her role as a ‘kept woman’ or ‘bit on the side’? Love or necessity?

That’s what they do, mistresses'įor years, the French establishment (including the Press) knew that President Mitterrand kept a long-time mistress with whom he had a daughter - but there was no scandal.įor that matter, I was once informed by an Italian count that Princess Diana was absurd not to see that all kings and princes require a mistress, and the wise royal wife is satisfied with her status and wealth. Marriage - in all its loving and unloving, extravagant and modest forms - comes alive here through Elizabeth Abbott's research, enthusiasm and curiosity.In Joanna Trollope's novel Marrying The Mistress, the heroine is blunt: 'We sleep together, you pay for some things for me, I keep myself exclusively for you. But how did a royal or aristocratic marriage differ to a poorer person's? How strong are the similarities between the way in which married people lived together in the past and today? What did getting married mean to ordinary people a hundred, or five hundred, years ago? How long did an average marriage last and what were a couple's alternatives to staying together? This fascinating book sheds light on a fundamental human institution and the forces that continue to shape it. The wedding ceremony, too, has worn many faces: 'spousals', common before the mid-twelfth century in western Europe, required no priest, but only the privately proclaimed consent of the couple the iconic white wedding dress did not emerge until the late eighteenth century and not until Queen Victoria wore a lavish white gown in 1840 did it become truly fashionable.

A History of Marriage paints an often surprising picture of this most public, yet most intimate, institution - a complex tradition that includes arranged marriages, dowries, same-sex marriages, self-marriages and child brides.

A history of marriage by elizabeth abbott