Would you litigate for intimate emotional injuries? Not physical rape, but for what can be called “injuries to the heart”. It used to be called “breach of promise of marriage”.
Quaint? Embarrassing? Until I read Alecia Simmonds’, 11 detailed investigations into historic law cases of breach of promise, might have been calledThat word, “courting”, trailing a prettiness of Austen, Dickens and Hardy is charming; murmured conversations, shady verandahs, long walks under bending trees, supervised and formal sexual dancing, seats in secluded gardens, lowered parasols, etc. Prettiness has a long list. But I had, after all, fixed my notion of courting according to my reading. Of novels. This, I’ve discovered, described strictly limited courting and strictly class-based. And there was a considerable difference depending in which country you were doing your courting. The law was there in the 18th and 19th century offering protection for woman in breach of promise case