Scotch Verdict: The Real-Life Story That Inspired "The Children's Hour" - Softcover

Faderman, Lillian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231163258 ISBN 13: 9780231163255

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2013

Synopsis

In 1810, a Scottish student named Jane Cumming accused her school mistresses, Jane Pirie and Marianne Woods, of having an affair in the presence of their students. Dame Helen Cumming Gordon, the wealthy and powerful grandmother of the accusing student, advised her friends to remove their daughters from the Drumsheugh boarding school. Within days, the institution was deserted and the two women were deprived of their livelihoods.

Award-winning author Lillian Faderman recreates the events surrounding this notorious case, which became the basis for Lillian Hellman's famous play, The Children's Hour. Reconstructing the libel suit filed by Pirie and Woods―which resulted in a scotch verdict, or a verdict of inconclusive/not proven―Faderman builds a compelling narrative from court transcripts, judges' notes, witnesses' contradictory testimony, and the prejudices of the men presiding over the case. Her fascinating portrait documents the social, economic, and sexual pressures shaping the lives of nineteenth-century women and the issues of class and gender contributing to their marginalization.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The year: 1810. The place: Edinburgh, Scotland. A student, Jane Cumming, accuses her school mistresses, Jane Pirie and Marianne Woods, of having an affair in the presence of their students. Dame Cumming Gordon, the wealthy and powerful grandmother of the accusing student, advises her friends to remove their daughters from the boarding school. Within days, the school is deserted and the two women deprived of their livelihood. Lillian Faderman, award-winning author of Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, gives an extraordinary rendering of the real-life story on which Lillian Hellman based her famous play, The Children's Hour. Faderman reconstructs the libel suit filed by Pirie and Woods that eventually resulted in a scotch verdict - a verdict of not proven or an inconclusive decision. Through court transcripts, judges' notes, and her personal reflections on the witnesses' contradictory testimony and the prejudices of the men presiding over the case, Faderman skillfully documents the social, economic, and sexual pressures that shaped the lives of nineteenth-century women. Provocative and compelling, not only does Scotch Verdict point to the marginalization of women by raising issues of class, gender, and sexuality with respect to Pirie and Woods, but also of race in its depiction of Jane Cumming, the half-Indian child who was born in India and out of wedlock to Dame Cumming Gordon's eldest son.

About the Author

Lillian Faderman is professor emerita of English at California State University, Fresno. Her award-winning titles are Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America; Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present; Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir; To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America―A History; and Gay L. A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians.

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0231163258
• ISBN 13: 9780231163255
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320