title: The Criminal Conversation of Mrs. Norton: Victorian England's Scandal of the Century and the Fallen Socialite Who Changed Women's Lives Forever
author:  Diane Atkinson 
description: Historian Atkinson builds an impressive biography around a scandalous early court case that titillated the collective sensibilities of early Victorian-era England. In 1836, George Norton brought suit against Prime Minister Lord Melbourne for having criminal conversation, aka sexual relations, with his wife, well-known author Caroline Norton. Though the suit was thrown out by the jury, its impact was long-lasting, reverberating through both legal and social circles for years and altering the course of feminist history. Thrown out of her home and denied access to her children, Caroline engaged in inveterate campaigning that led directly to the Custody of Infants Act of 1839, the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, and the Married Womens Property Act of 1870. As Atkinson reviews Carolines life, a robust portrait emerges of a woman who refused to be circumscribed by the restrictive social mores and legal inequities of her time and place in history. --Margaret Flanagan
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  **NINE-TENTHS OF THE LAW**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _Jenna Black_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Nothing good
  
  
  ever comes from private citizens visiting my office. Which was why I looked up
  
  
  from my pile of paperwork and scowled when a middle-aged couple stepped
  through
  
  
  my office door without knocking.
  
  
  
  
  
  I guessed the man’s
  
  
  age at about fifty, though it was a well-preserved fifty. His neatly trimmed
  
  
  hair was a dark blond that camouflaged a hint of gray, and he had rounded
  apple
  
  
  cheeks that would always give him an aura of boyishness. The woman was
  considerably
  
  
  younger—late thirties, early forties—and beautiful enough to qualify for
  
  
  trophy-wife status. Both were impeccably dressed, and obviously tense.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Are you Morgan
  
  
  Kingsley?” the woman asked tentatively, looking me up and down with a little
  
  
  frown tugging at the corners of her mouth. All right, I don’t dress like a
  
  
  corporate clone; so sue me. It was hot as hell out today, so I’d gone for a
  
  
  clingy camisole top an