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Mrs Robinson's Disgrace

The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady

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Mrs Robinson's Disgrace

By: Kate Summerscale
Narrated by: Stephanie Racine
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Bloomsbury presents Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale, read by Stephanie Racine.

FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER

'Extraordinary' PHILIPPA GREGORY, DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Grippingly suspenseful' SUNDAY TIMES

When the married Isabella Robinson was introduced to the dashing Edward Lane at a party in 1850, she was utterly enchanted. He was ‘fascinating’, she told her diary, before chastising herself for being so susceptible to a man’s charms. But a wish had taken hold of her, and she was to find it hard to shake. . .

In one of the most notorious divorce cases of the nineteenth century, Isabella Robinson’s scandalous secrets were exposed to the world. Kate Summerscale brings vividly to life a frustrated Victorian wife’s longing for passion and learning, companionship and love, in a society clinging to rigid ideas about marriage and female sexuality.

‘I’m all admiration: she has turned a sepia photograph, curling and tattered, into a film that runs through the mind in glorious and unimpeachable Technicolor’ RACHEL COOKE, OBSERVER

'Summerscale strikes non-fiction gold for the third time' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

'Moving, compelling and brilliantly executed' DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR

‘Summerscale’s brilliance lies not only in recognising the power of a particular story, but in charting,
with beautiful precision, its strange echoes and reverberations’ CRAIG BROWN, MAIL ON SUNDAY Europe Great Britain Women Marriage
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Critic reviews

Simply superb (Alexandra Harris)
Extraordinary (Phillipa Gregory)
Like her previous book, I was hooked after the first few pages. It's as good as non-fiction could possibly get (Victoria Hislop)
Grippingly suspenseful ... Mrs Robinson's Disgrace displays a scalpel-sharp investigative mind, and it vividly conveys the immediate surroundings of the case, from the stench of the polluted Thames infiltrating Westminster Hall to the degradations of Victorian marriage, as evidenced in contemporary divorce cases (John Carey)
Summerscale strikes nonfiction gold for the third time (Daneet Steffens)
Summerscale's brilliance lies not only in recognising the power of a particular story, but in charting, with beautiful precision, its strange echoes and reverberations (Craig Brown)
I'm all admiration: she has turned a sepia photograph, curling and tattered, into a film that runs through the mind in glorious and unimpeachable Technicolor (Rachel Cooke)
Mesmerising (Boyd Tonkin)
Told with dazzling detail and exquisite tenderness, this non-fiction tale reads like a perfect novel
Utterly engrossing (Fanny Blake)
Riveting
Absorbing ... a rich and puzzled book (Philip Hensher)
Summerscale puts this peculiar case in a wonderfully rich context of fads of the day ... Her courtroom reconstructions are vivid and enthralling, her research is impeccable and her narration coolly authoritative as she draws together what was happening around her subject and makes Mrs Robinson's volatile state of mind much more explicable (Claire Harman)
Fascinating
Marvellous
A gripping account of Victorian wife Isabella Robinson and her cause célèbre divorce trial
Meticulously researched (Maggie Shipstead)
Sensational (Vicky Allen)
Kate Summerscale has a knack for rescuing Victorian histories from obscurity and turning them into the most comprehensive books you're likely to find in any non-fiction section ... Thought-provoking stuff from a writer who, in putting the past in the dock, teaches us about who we are now (Chitra Ramaswamy)
Moving, compelling and brilliantly executed
All stars
Most relevant
This book would have been much more enjoyable if the narrator had been more engaging. I couldn't finish the book sadly.

I liked The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - but

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I did enjoy this but in parts it seemed to drag or go off in a different direction, which I found a bit hard to keep up with. I did enjoy it though

Enjoyed but sometimes got a bit lost

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thoroughly enjoyed this unusual story and a gem from start to finish. great narrator. recommended.

enjoyable.

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Kate Summerscale is always quite brilliant! Her books are surprising, clever, intricate and carefully planned.

Great book

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..and couldn’t will the life to carry on listening to this miserable woman’s lamenting. Not sure the narrator could do much to improve it. It feels like the life source has been drained out of you...

Not at all what I expected..

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