In Bed with the Victorians : The Life-Cycle of Working-Class Marriage

'Vicky Holmes shows how we can understand gender and working-class married life through that most essential of objects: the bed. It allows her to write in new ways about space and inter-personal relations. This is a highly original exploration of the Victorian domestic interior which rethinks the way we study family history.' Rohan McWilliam, Anglia Ruskin University, UK 'Vicky Holmes takes us into that most intimate of domestic spaces, the bedroom, to peer into the marriages of working people. She shows us the marriage bed as a place to quarrel and to make up; a private space that was also, for some couples, embarrassingly public; a place of comfort for parents and children and one of sorrow; a symbol of togetherness and of loneliness. Through the records of coroners' courts, In Bed with the Victorians offers readers a wonderful new insight into facets of life that have long remained hidden from history.' Julie-Marie Strange, University of Manchester, UK This book examines the life-cycle of Victorian working-class marriage through a study of the hitherto hidden marital bed. Using coroners' inquests to gain intimate access to the working-class home and its inhabitants, this book explores their marital, quasi-marital, and post-marital beds to reveal the material, domestic, and emotional experience of working-class marriage during everyday life and at times of crisis. Drawing on the recent approach of utilising domestic objects to explore interpersonal relationships, the marital bed not only provides a rereading of the experiences of the working-class wife but also brings the much maligned or simply overlooked working-class husband into the picture. Moreover, it also extends our understanding of the various marriage-like arrangements existing throughout this class. Moving through the marital life-cycle, this book provides a greater understanding of marriages from the outset, during childbirth, at times of strife and marital breakdown, and upon the death of a spouse.-- Provided by publisher Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 Abbreviations 9 Chapter 1 Introduction: Victorian Working-Class Marriage and the Marital Bed 10 Abstract 10 Approaches to Marriage and the Marital Bed 13 Locating the Victorian Working-Class Marital Bed 14 Scope of the Present Book 16 Chapter Outlines 17 Chapter 2 Beds of Newlyweds 23 Abstract 23 ‘[Her Father] Slept in the Same Room as Us’: Sleeping With the In-laws 26 ‘We are Only Lodgers’: Newlywed Lodgers 32 ‘[The] Next Room’: Shared Homes and Bedrooms with Non-kin 33 Conclusion 36 Chapter 3 From Marital Bed to Childbed 42 Abstract 42 ‘Making Arrangements for the Expected Confinement’: The Transformation of Marital Bed to Childbed 44 ‘In Her Confinement’: The Wife’s Experience of Childbirth 45 ‘I Called to My Husband Directly, Who Was Sleeping in the Next Room’: The Husband’s Experience of Childbirth 48 ‘Sleeping by [Her] Side’: The Return of the Husband to the Marital Bed 50 Conclusion 52 Chapter 4 Marital Beds in Marital Strife 58 Abstract 58 ‘They Were Always Quarrelling Even When They Were in Bed’: Marital Quarrels 60 ‘Rip the Feather Bed Open’: The Marital Bed as a Tool of Abuse and Control 62 ‘At These Times He Slept in the Shed’: Controlling Access to the Marital Bed 65 Conclusion 67 Chapter 5 Beds After Marital Separation 72 Abstract 72 ‘Lived Together As Man and Wife’: Quasi-Marital Beds, Landladies, and Housekeepers 74 ‘On a Couch’: The Unstable Beds of Working-Class Women After Marital Breakdown 80 Conclusion 85 Chapter 6 Post-marital Beds of the Bereaved 90 Abstract 90 ‘Employed to Make His Bed’: An Empty Space in the Marital Bed 93 ‘I Have Been Married Twice’: The New Marital Beds of the Bereaved 96 ‘A Stump Bedstead’: The Lodgers’ Beds of the Bereaved 98 ‘[The] Little Girl, with Who the Old LadySlept’: The Downgraded Beds of the Bereaved in the Homes of Kin 102 Conclusion 104 Chapter 7 Conclusion 110 Abstract 110 Bibliography 115 Index 125 Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction: Victorian Working-Class Marriage and the Marital Bed (Vicky Holmes)....Pages 1-13 Beds of Newlyweds (Vicky Holmes)....Pages 15-33 From Marital Bed to Childbed (Vicky Holmes)....Pages 35-50 Marital Beds in Marital Strife (Vicky Holmes)....Pages 51-64 Beds After Marital Separation (Vicky Holmes)....Pages 65-82 Post-marital Beds of the Bereaved (Vicky Holmes)....Pages 83-102 Conclusion (Vicky Holmes)....Pages 103-107 Back Matter ....Pages 109-125 Annotation This text examines the life-cycle of Victorian working-class marriage through a study of the hitherto hidden marital bed. Using coroners' inquests to gain intimate access to the working-class home and its inhabitants, it explores their marital, quasi-marital, and post-marital beds to reveal the material, domestic, and emotional experience of working-class marriage during everyday life and at times of crisis Vicky Holmes. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 109-118) And Index.