Man and Wife - Classic Reprint Author:Wilkie Collins PREFACE THE Story here offered to the reader lliffers in one respect from the stories which have preceded it by the same hand. This time the fiction is founded on facts, and aspires to afford what help it may towards hastening the reform of certain abuses which have been too long suffered to exist among us unchecked. As to the present scandalous... more » condition of the Marriage Laws of the United Kingdom, there can be no dispute. The Report of the Royal Commission appointed to examillle the working of those laws, has supplied the solid foundation on which I have built my book. Such references to this high authority as may be necessary to convince the reader that 1 am not leading him astray, will be found collected in the Appendix. I have only to add that, while I write these lines, Parliament is bestirring itself to remedy the cruel abuses which are here exposed in the story of ' Hester Dethridge.' There is a prospect, at last, of lawfully establishing the right of a marri
Table of Contents
co N~rE N ~rs; PROLOGUE; THE IRISH :IARRIA(;E; I'ART; J THE VILLA T HA~IPSTE:n; II THE :IARCH OF TDIE; THE STORY; FIRST SCE~E-THE SC:DIER-HOCSE; I THE OWLS; II THE (;llESTS; III THE llISCOVERIE:-;; 1' THE TWO; V THE I'LX; '1 THE SUITOK; VII THE I)EI:T; '111 THE ~C::-ilLL; SEeo);]) SCE~E-THE I~N; IX ~~E; X IR m:-iHOI'RIC(;S; XI SIR I'XfRICK; XII :RXOLll; XIII BI,:-iCHE; 33; 35; 44; 53; 61; 65; 75; 82; C)Z THIRD SCENE-LONDON; CHAPTER; XIV GEOFFREY AS A LETTER-WRITER ?; XV GEOFFREY IN THE MARRIAGE MARKET; XVI GEOFFREY AS A PUBLIC CHARACTER; FOURTH SCENE-VINDYGATES; XVII NEAR IT; XVIII NEARER STILL; XIX CLOSE ON IT; XX TOUCHINC; IT; XXI IN IT; XXII SCARED; XXIII DONE; XXIV GONE; XXV FOLLOWED; XXVI LOST; XXVII TRACED; XXVIII BACKWARDS; XXIX FORWARDS; XXX DROPPED; XXXI OlJ'nnTTEJ); XXXII STIFLED; FIFTH SCENE-GLASGOW; XXXIII ANNE 'IONC TH« less