Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore

I love this author and this (true) story is almost impossibly full of drama —but writing about an abusive relationship that dragged on for 10 years—it’s tough to keep the story going through the middle when the heroine is basically a prisoner. But the end definitely made up for everything with a real life police chase across the moors! I will confess it made me somewhat ill that after our heroine escaped, her abuser found a a new victim—(while in prison!) and proceeded to abuse her and ruin her life & nobody helped her even after they knew the husband was a complete psycho. But this author is fantastic & you will enjoy the book. (See also “knife Man” by same author)

I am still thinking about this book days after finishing it. It is one of the best books I've ever read, and I have read a lot of books.Wendy Moore is both a captivating writer and an excellent researcher, as the book is both suspenseful (a "roller-coaster ride" is correct) and informative, about life in Georgian England, the classes high and low, the court system (Dickens comes to mind), women's rights or lack thereof, an amazing portrait of a sociopath who leaves a trail of carnage in his wake, a thrilling abduction narrative that will leave you breathless, and the tale of Mary Eleanor Bowes, later the Countess of Stratford and an ancestor of the current Queen via her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.She was the indulged and educated only child of a father who made a fortune in coal mining, and upon his death Mary Eleanor became one of the richest people in England. The book is scholarly, having a bibliography and footnotes, but oh! It reads like a soap opera- an intelligent one. Moore has packed a tremendous amount of history, sociology, psychology, and drama into this one book. You will not regret reading it!

I agree with the other reviewers on the content of this book - Ms. Moore takes impressive and thorough research to build a personal history that goes beyond fiction. It's no surprise that Thackeray toned down Barry Lyndon - if I turned in a manuscript with a villain as awful as Stoney, nobody would believe him.However, my low rating for an otherwise excellent piece of biographical scholarship comes from the poor Kindle version editing. The kindle edition was clearly an OCR (optical character recognition) scan instead of a direct importation of the digital file, so the copy-editor's work went somewhat to waste. Castle is rendered as casde, _the_ is sometimes rendered as _die_, George III is occasionally rendered as George Ill ( which, given his porphyria and madness, is an apt, if cruel pun). It grows intrusive quite rapidly, having to decipher a nonsensical OCR error. This is the first OCR'ed Kindle edition that wasn't derived from a piece of public domain work that I've bought, but it is not the first time I've seen these type of errors in an ebook. Converting the digital file to Kindle format is much cheaper and less time consuming than scanning a finished manuscript, so why this choice was made confounds me. Shame on the publishers for failing to use the digital file, and double shame for failing to hand the OCR output file back to a copy-editor.

***A COUPLE OF SPOILERS HERE***Today, a man like Andrew Robinson Stoney would probably be diagnosed as a dangerous psychopath and jailed or institutionalized for a very long time. Alas, not in the eighteenth century, when he was allowed to go on a life-long rampage of violence without any consequences until the very end. This included beating and bullying his wife for years, raping underprivileged women (the story of the woman he 'kept' while in prison is especially distressing), harassing his wife's supporters, etc. He also possibly murdered his first wife --- undoubtedly hastened her demise. He was a monster, and if his victim Mary Eleanor Bowes (whom he married through a ruse) had not been so resilient and come from a privileged background, she would probably not have succeeded in escaping his clutches.This is a chilling tale of cruelty and defenselessness --- the latter not just Mary Eleanor's, but also that of the many women Stoney initially charmed, then beat and/or raped into submission, with devastating consequences. The book is fairly well written (though perhaps not in Tomalin's or Fraser's league), well researched and gripping. Highly recommended.

Wow. Just wow!!! If this book is not a movie yet, it should be! That old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction" is certainly true in this case. I would never have believed that this had happened had I not read it. Another true saying comes to mind: "marry in haste and repent at leisure" - and with a vengeance for sure in this case. Thankfully, the audacity and sheer batpoop craziness of Stoney was overmatched by the strength and endurance of the poor Countess, though it was hard to read all that it cost her. This book documents a true triumph over adversity - and that is an understatement!A truly great read (aside from a few typos)!

What a story! Written as well as a novel, yet backed by solid research, this biography reads like every historical novel rolled into one. The life of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Stratham, was quite the roller coaster ride. Educated better than many men of the times, at 11 she became the wealthiest heiress in Britain. Every element of Georgian and Regency romance is here: the very young girl marries a stern and handsome earl, a half-pay officers enveigles a widow into the world's worst marriage. There are kidnappings, midnight rides, plots galore, loyal servants and old retainers, and more pitiful illegitimate offspring imaginable. The court cases rival , and probably inspired, anything Dickens dreamt up. Betrayals, perjuries, it goes on and on and had me transfixed.

Great read. The author did a lot of investigating and foot work to write the history of women's right to divorce in England, and around the world. Such a shame Mary Eleanor had to endure the pain and suffering for so many years under a tyrant and ne'er-do-well.

"I love it" isn't my reaction to this book. It certainly rates 5 Stars, and but "Captain" Stoney's treatment of his wife, whom he married to get her vast fortune, made me so upset. He beat her, starved her, shut her into closets, degraded her in public, refused to allow her to buy clothing or have anything to keep her warm, and threatened to shoot her, strangle her or put her in a lunatic house FOR SEVEN YEARS - and she took it like Patient Griselda until her new maid, Mary Mason, helped her escape and find a lawyer who would take her divorce case through the courts. It was not a book to read with meals or before hitting the pillow. Stoney also used Petruchio's methods in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", but at least Petruchio pretended to abuse Katerina out of love for her. Nasty pieces of work, both of them.Mary Eleanor Bowes was the heiress who put the "Bowes" into "Bowes-Lyon", the late Queen Mother's family name. Her father owned coal mines and timber in County Durham, and his extremely large fortune went to eleven-year old Mary Eleanor, his only child. She was a book learned girl, but not wise about falling in love and choosing husbands. She married the Earl of Strathmore (the "Lyon" of the name) for love; but soon discovered they were of opposite temperaments. Five children, but not a happy marriage. Mr. Bowes's will stipulated that Eleanor's husband had to change his name, to keep the money in his (Bowes) name, sot that's what the Earl (and later Storey) did.If you ever wanted to know what a bad marriage and a lengthy divorce suit was like in the 1700s, here it is.

An interesting historical novel....enjoyed the book

An eyeopening and sad account of a poor heiress (poor in as much as to the treatment she endured from her husband) and how she finally broke free from the tyrant. Gosh, a harrowing read but one I would highly recommend if only to make us ladies appreciate how lucky we are to live in the 20th-21st centuries!

At last, a great account of Lady Strathmore's horrendous marriage. Detailed research set along side an insight into Georgian society, beliefs and behaviour.

This is an amazing story but it's hard to get through as there is so much reference in it. Would make a fab film