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Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America

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Jean Elson

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“Nina could scarcely believe a house could be as quiet as the one on Washington Street. Although there were moments when she missed her children, her main response to living apart from her husband was relief…[H]er current solitude was not just a respite, it was a time to contemplate her future options. Nina marveled that she had choices to consider.”

MarriageDivorceInfidelityMarriage QuotesWickednessAdulteryLegalCourtroom DramaCharlestonDivorce QuotesRhode IslandInfidelity In MarriageDivorcesInfidelity In RelationshipsProgressive EraNewportGross MisbehaviorExtreme CrueltyJames WalkerNina WalkerWomen Studies
Book:Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America
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“Leaving James was not something Nina had thought possible, but if she could do so and still keep her children, it might be better for them, as well as for her.”

MarriageDivorceInfidelityMarriage QuotesWickednessAdulteryLegalCourtroom DramaCharlestonDivorce QuotesRhode IslandInfidelity In MarriageDivorcesInfidelity In RelationshipsProgressive EraNewportGross MisbehaviorExtreme CrueltyJames WalkerNina WalkerWomen Studies
Book:Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America
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“If they could not prove adultery or extreme cruelty, Nina's attorneys had an alternate strategy available. Rhode Island was unique in allowing divorce based upon other, more ambiguous grounds, as well...[as] an omnibus clause in the state's legal code authorized divorce based upon..."gross misbehavior and wickedness in either of the parties repugnant to and inconsistent with the marriage contract"...the relative vagueness of the terms "gross misbehavior and wickedness" left room for interpretation by Rhode Island judges. Therefore, it was crucial NIna's attorneys prove she had legitimate standing to file for divorce in Rhode Island.”

MarriageDivorceInfidelityMarriage QuotesWickednessAdulteryLegalCourtroom DramaCharlestonDivorce QuotesRhode IslandInfidelity In MarriageDivorcesInfidelity In RelationshipsProgressive EraNewportGross MisbehaviorExtreme CrueltyJames WalkerNina WalkerWomen Studies
Book:Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America
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“As a hedge against possible failure to prove adultery, this alleged “that for a period of time from 1901 and continuing thereafter he [had] kept up and continued an undue, improper, indecorous and licentious association and intimacy with a woman, named Mabel Cochrane, many years his junior, and of questionable character and immoral habits.”[i] Furthermore, Nina accused James of “bestowing upon and receiving marked and improper attention” beginning in the fall of 1901, “indulging in undue and improper familiarity and intimacy” with Mabel Cochrane.”

MarriageDivorceInfidelityMarriage QuotesWickednessAdulteryLegalCourtroom DramaCharlestonDivorce QuotesRhode IslandInfidelity In MarriageDivorcesInfidelity In RelationshipsProgressive EraNewportGross MisbehaviorExtreme CrueltyJames WalkerNina WalkerWomen Studies
Book:Gross Misbehavior and Wickedness: A Notorious Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century America
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“Love Hurts. I daresay there’s two or three poems, six novels and at least twelve songs on the subject. That’s how the Janus-faced beast of poetry gets written in the first place, in all its myriad of magical forms. So; why cover this hitherto uncharted and highly original territory? Why leap fearlessly into the unknown, nostrils flared, eyes flashing fire? Well, in the name of love, lust and limerence, why on earth not? Suffering is gratuitous and pointless, yet also vital, valuable and necessary. My last tête à tête gave me plenty, incorporating elements of the forbidden, of rebellion, pornography, pregnancy, parental approval – followed by fury – of infidelity, friend estrangement, life on one island that was heavenly and a second that veered between purgatorial and infernal, of violence, miscarriage, masturbating Indians, pepper spray, antipathy, disloyalty, evictions, a planned future, failed globetrotting and habitual lies, whilst being indicative of a wider, all-encompassing social corrosion, and while the story itself may remain merely hinted at or alluded to in the course of this generalised polemic, it’s as worthy or valid as any other such tale told round the campfire and whispered across the beaches of the world. All life’s a roll of the dice, tiger; ride into the bastard storm and if your wounds hurt, be grateful you survived to lick them, even in the darkest nights of the soul when the sun is a mattress fire the god of your love died in. Love Hurts, and in a stupendous and savage cosmos, it’s my right to sit at the keyboard and bleed. Besides, love, poverty and war are the necessary accoutrements to a fulfilled life; this is the all-encompassing theme of our human condition and the crooning, persuasive symphony of that philosophically unfathomable miracle of life itself… especially as love leads to poverty and war. Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, after all. I certainly am… we choose our own chains... ~excerpt, "Love Hurts”

LoveRelationshipsInfidelityLove HurtsSingaporeDaniel FletcherDaniel S FletcherLove Hurts QuotesDaniel Fletcher WriterFletch
Author:Daniel S. Fletcher
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