Trials for Adultery, Or, The History of Divorces

[Trial].[Adultery and Divorce]. Trials for Adultery: Or, the History of Divorces. Being Select Trials at Doctors Commons, for Adultery, Fornication, Cruelty, Impotence, &c. From the Year 1760, to the Present Time. Including the whole of the Evidence on Each Cause. Together With the Letters, &c. That Have Been Intercepted Between the Amorous Parties. The Whole Forming a Complete History of the Private Life, Intrigues, and Amours of Many Characters in the Most Elevated Sphere: Every Scene and Transaction, However Ridiculous, Whimsical, or Extraordinary, Being Fairly Represented, as Becomes a Faithful Historian, Who is Fully Determined Not to Sacrifice Truth at the Shrine of Guilt and Folly. Taken in Short Hand, by a Civilian. London: Printed for S. Bladon, 1779-1780. Seven Volumes. Plates. Reprint available January, 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-468-1. Cloth. $695. * With numerous ribald engravings. This is the most extensive compilation of scandalous divorce cases produced in eighteenth-century England. Produced for amusement and titillation, the accounts in these volumes are valuable nevertheless for their combination of accurate reports and vivid background histories. In all, this collection is a fascinating document of English social and legal attitudes toward adultery and divorce at the dawn of an era of unprecedented social change.