Promises Broken: Courtship, Class, and Gender in Victorian England - Victorian Literature and Culture Series

Publisher Marketing: In the nineteenth century, a woman who could prove a man had broken his promise to marry her was legally entitled to compensation for damages. Bridging the gap between history and literature, Ginger S. Frost offers an in-depth examination of these breaches of promise and compares actual with fictional cases. Althought the most important factor in determining the outcome of such trials was gender, class was also vital in assessing the suitability of mates. Promises Broken highlights the courtship practices of lower- and middle- class Victorians, a group much neglected in previous scholarship.

Contributor Bio:  Frost, Ginger S GINGER S. FROST is Professor of History at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. She is the author of Promises Broken: Courtship, Class and Gender in Victorian England and Living in Sin: Cohabiting as Husband and Wife in Nineteenth-Century England as well as numerous articles. She has received fellowships from the National Humanities Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and served as President of the Southern Conference on British Studies from 2002 to 2003.