Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman

Summary (from the publisher): What started as a friendly conversation between a young girl, Theresa Longworth, and an army officer, William Charles Yelverton, on a steamer bound from France to England in 1852 would culminate nearly a decade later in one of the biggest public scandals the era had witnessed, with enormous implications for society at large. Seized upon by the Victorian press, the trials to legitimize Longworth's marriage to Yelverton before the law courts of Ireland, Scotland, and England brought to the fore several of the most disconcerting matters in the Victorian era: the inadequacies of female education, prejudice against single women, and problems with marriage law.

When Theresa Yelverton emerged victorious from her legal battles, she was paraded through Dublin's streets like a queen. Her victory, though, was short-lived, as she learned that life as a single woman, even the life of a well-known writer and traveler, as she became, would always be hard. Theresa Yelverton became an unwitting harbinger of the turmoil of her era and evoked timeless fears and fascinations: the fantasy of romance, the grip of obsession, the plight of unrequited love, the fear of abandonment. Chloe Schama brilliantly recaptures an ordinary woman caught up in an extraordinary affair, catapulted into fame and notoriety, forcing her society to confront some of its most unsettling issues.

 

Review: This work of non-fiction explores the woman behind the 1861 trial referred to as the Yelverton Bigamy Trial, which "attracted national, front-page attention for weeks" (xi). Although the trial was something of a sensation in its day, (indeed, "between fifty and one hundred thousand people" gathered to hear the verdict (101)), the story faded into obscurity over time.

 

Theresa Longworth met William Charles Yelverton on a steamship when Yelverton returned her fallen shawl to her and they struck up a conversation that apparently lasted for hours. Nearly a year later, Theresa took the bold step of writing to a man she barely knew, beginning a long correspondence and a turbulent relationships The pattern of their relationship was this: "Yelverton failed to write or responded with a flip note; Theresa complained, then turned his apathy into a sign of his commitment" (9). In short, much could have been avoided if Theresa had accepted that Yelverton was not nearly as devoted to her as she was to him and moved on.

 

After not one but two secret marriage ceremonies to Theresa, Yelverton married another woman, inciting an angry and betrayed Theresa to bring a court case against her former lover on the grounds of bigamy. Although Theresa eventually legally won the case and was declared Yelverton's wife, the two never lived together or communicated again after the trial. Instead, Theresa wrote a fictional account of their romance (with a happier ending) and moved to America, becoming a travel writer.

 

Although the first half of this book, or the half that dealt with both their romance and its disintegration, was interesting, the second half petered out in enthusiasm and interest. Although all of Theresa's life was unconventional and interesting, it seemed clear that the author was truly interested in the relationship between Theresa and Yelverton and not the portions of their lives that they lived apart. Additionally, I found it odd that little was said about Yelverton's life post-trial. It seems his life was mostly quiet after the very public court case, however, what was his opinion of the ordeal? Did he read Theresa's novels? Did he leave any written indication of his thoughts?

 

Ultimately, the court case was significant because it "evoked the disadvantaged position of young unmarried women and unhappily married women, the tangled skein of marriage law, and the incapacity of the courts to deal with certain types of evidence and stories" (118). Yet it all seems like  a whole lot of trouble that could have easily been solved by either Theresa moving on from an uninterested man or Yelverton simply breaking things off with her once and for all.

 

Stars: 3