Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
A woman who braved public disgrace to expose a brutal marriage.
A story of gaslighting, control and one woman's fight, The Defiance of Frances Dickinson is the true story behind one of the most sensational divorce trials of the nineteenth century.
1838, England: When eighteen-year-old heiress Frances Dickinson impulsively marries Lieutenant John Geils, she soon discovers there is much about her husband she did not know. A cruel and violent man, John keeps Frances in isolation on his family's estate in Scotland, while spending her fortune and preying upon their maids.
Frances yearns to break free from her marriage but the law is not on her side. Only when John's abuse escalates can she set in motion a daring plan to secure her freedom.
A story of gaslighting, control and one woman's fight, The Defiance of Frances Dickinson is the true story behind one of the most sensational divorce trials of the nineteenth century.
The This novel, soberingly based on a true story, is set in the 1830's in England, telling the story of a sensational divorce trial instigated by Frances Dickinson after years of enduring abuse and degradation at the hands of her appalling husband. 18 years old and wealthy when she married Lieutenant John Gells, she soon discovered there was much more to him. A cruel, violent, predatory man he subjected her to years of physical, sexual and mental abuse, spending her money with abandon, whilst preying on their staff, she was kept separate from everyone, hidden away on his family's Scottish estate.
Using letters, diary entries, and witness statements from the trial Parkins has built up a picture of a woman who was badly treated, by a society that permitted divorce but made it incredibly difficult to obtain, despite the fact that her husband was blatantly a monster. Fortunately, Frances is made of very stern stuff, and determined to save herself, and her daughters from this man, she, taking advantage of her position in society, and family support is able to firstly bring a legal action, and ultimately obtain the divorce she so rightly deserved.
Told from a variety of viewpoints, with the author's note ultimately explaining the factual source documents used, as well as the fictional byways taken, this story is not easy reading. That domestic abuse occurred back then is of absolutely no surprise, and it should surely form as a warning for the weird anti-divorce, anti-women's rights movements that seem to be crawling out of the slime again, but the extent of this man's actions were truly breathtaking, and profoundly disturbing. That the only reason Frances, and her daughters, survived is down to her determination, and to their "position" in society is extremely discomforting, as is the idea that she had to battle against potential "disgrace" to free herself from such an appalling situation. Says a huge amount about the world's attitude then (and increasingly again now) to women.
The story is reasonably well crafted, although there is a bit of repetition in the first part that readers will have to work through. The tone feels very apt for the time, and the tension, once that repetition is in the past is palpable. If nothing else THE DEFIANCE OF FRANCES DICKINSON shows just how powerful gaslighting, coercive control and domestic violence are - they're still around, and there's still a sick cohort of deplorable human beings that deny they exist, or decry opposition to them.
Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction.
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