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Dorothea Graham Jensen
a book bubble about
A Buss from Lafayette
Teens
Author Insight
Pricking Annual Blister. . .
In previous bubbles I wrote about the fact that marriage to a deceased spouse's sibling was illegal in England in the 19th century. (Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe referred to this perennial issue before Parliament thus: "We shall prick that annual blister, marriage with deceased wife's sister.") Recently I came across something in Jane Austen, The Secret Radical, by Helena Kelly. Here she is talking about one of Jane Austen's brothers marrying the sister of his deceased wife. "Frances Palmer died in 1814; Charles later married her sister, Harriet. This was not illegal at the time in England (though it became so in 1835 and continued to be illegal until 1905), but it was frowned upon." So, actually, it was not illegal in England in 1825, as I had thought. It was never illegal in America, however, nor even frowned on, as far as I know!
Book Excerpt
A Buss from Lafayette
My father’s new wife gave me this journal the day she married him, exactly one year ago. Before then, she was only my aunt Priscilla, a Boston old maid schoolmistress, no less. She is so very prim and proper that I call her “Prissy,” but inside my head—not to her face. That would just be courting trouble!
Prissy married Father a scant, sorrowful week after Mother died. I must confess—but only to these pages—I often do and say things I know will irritate her. Not an admirable thing to do, but I do it anyhow.
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