Summary of Strong Passions by Barbara Weisberg: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York

By summary gp

DISCLAIMER
This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Strong Passions by Barbara Weisberg: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York
 
IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

Strong Passions is a 19th-century novel that tells the story of a tumultuous marriage in New York during the Civil War. The story revolves around Mary Strong, who confessed to adultery and was sued for divorce. The novel explores the private world of the privileged elite in New York, revealing the conflicts over women's roles, male custody of children, and men's power over wives. The story is based on Edith Wharton's "old New York" and offers a glimpse into the private world of New York society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Feb 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9783755470151

Book preview

Summary of Strong Passions

A

Summary of Barbara Weisberg’s book

A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York

GP SUMMARY

Summary of Strong Passions by Barbara Weisberg: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York

By GP SUMMARY© 2024, GP SUMMARY.

All rights reserved.

Author: GP SUMMARY

Contact: [e-mail]

Cover, illustration: GP SUMMARY

Editing, proofreading: GP SUMMARY

Other collaborators: GP SUMMARY

NOTE TO READERS

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Barbara Weisberg’s Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York designed to enrich your reading experience.

DISCLAIMER

The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

Limit of Liability

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. You agree to accept all risks of using the information presented inside this book.

Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Mary Emeline Stevens Strong, a woman who was once a strict and law-abiding mother and father, disappeared with her younger daughter, Allie, in June 1864. Her husband, Peter Remsen Strong, sued her for divorce, and the case came to trial in November 1865. The trial provided a shocking distraction and an unusual glimpse into the private world of New York's powerful and privileged elite. Divorce was virtually nonexistent among the upper echelons of mid-nineteenth-century American society, and women like Mary Emeline Stevens Strong were presumed to never violate the sacred marital bond.

The trial unfolded as a set of overlapping narratives by witnesses, with different events emphasized and analyzed, chronology altered, character traits and motivations debated. Witnesses were summoned from all walks of life, including a governess, a detective, a judge’s daughter, an undertaker, an abortionist’s spouse, a laundress, and Teddy Roosevelt’s uncle. The series of dramatic incidents that precipitated the divorce suit were clouded by a divergence in bitterly contested versions of what occurred.

The press's coverage of the suit gave a frank portrait of life within the Strongs’ unhappy household before and during the Civil War, which rocked genteel society with scandalous revelations. The publicity around Strong v. Strong also helped focus attention on issues, attitudes, and laws related to marital roles, abortion, divorce, and child custody that continue to resonate as they remain in contention today. The Strongs' divorce demonstrated to a society at war with itself that the perfect union was as much a fiction in marriage as it had proved to be for the nation.

PART 1

A Perfect Union

A Marriageable Girl

Mary Emeline Stevens, a nineteen-year-old woman, met her husband, Peter Remsen Strong, in 1852. They were from the privileged world of New York City's social elite, a thriving class of well-todo merchants, lawyers, bankers, and doctors. These families represented what the writer Edith Wharton later called the world of old New York. Mary and Wharton were cousins, born a generation apart. Both were descendants of Ebenezer Stevens, a Revolutionary War hero turned merchant who was Mary's grandfather and Wharton's great-grandfather. Ebenezer founded a successful mercantile firm specializing in overseas trade, importing French wines and other luxury items for notable clients such as Thomas Jefferson.

He married twice and fathered fourteen children. Mary's father, John Austin Stevens, inherited his father's visage and propensity for mercantile success. John graduated from Yale in 1813 and rose to prominence as a partner in Ebenezer's firm. He married Abby Perkins Weld, whose notable New England family approved the match. John subsequently became a banker, joining in 1838 with other New York businessmen to found the Bank of Commerce.

By the mid-1840s, Abby had given birth to twelve children, not all of whom lived beyond a few years. Mary was a middle child, having one older brother, three older sisters, and four younger ones. Her best friend was Lucretia, who was said to have so much spirit that she kept everyone wide awake.

In the late 1830s and '40s, Mary Stevens lived in a stately red brick townhouse at 63 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. The house was a fashionable neighborhood with late Federal style townhouses, many with a multistep front stoop and an imposing doorway flanked by white Greek Revival pillars. The Stevens household had five servants, including a cook, a laundress, two housemaids, and a waiter. Mary and her sisters attended Madame Canda's school, a private girls' academy, which was easily accessible on Lafayette Place.

New York was expanding in area and population, with changes visible even in the neighborhood between Mary's home and school. Taverns, butcher shops, secondhand furniture stalls, and boarding houses lined the Bowery, pushing the city northward. Hotels, music halls, public gardens, and specialty shops proliferated along Broadway. In 1847, the magnificent Astor Opera House was built on Astor Place, near Madame Canda's academy.

An estimated twenty-two people died and more than one hundred were wounded in a riot involving William Macready and Edwin Forrest. The couple's divorce suit, with furious charges and countercharges of adultery, made front-page headlines for eighteen years. Prostitutes, some in tawdry or tattered clothes, paraded along Broadway every afternoon. A commentator for the Herald noted that a strange and disreputable anomaly of theaters, churches, and houses of ill-fame could be found all huddled together in one block in neighborhoods throughout the city.

In Victorian-era New York, the streets were bustling with private carriages, carts, and horse-drawn omnibuses.