Collins, Wilkie: Man and Wife, v.1, 16 Jan 2008.
 

A novel of 1870.

A sensational novel which explores British marriage laws.

A man wants to rid himself of an ageing and unsuitable wife (-- she’s only 42!) and tries to find a loop-hole in the law. A woman tries to exploit the differences between Scottish and English laws on marrage. Another woman is desparate to secure her own property when it legally belongs to her brutal husband and hits on a desparate remedy (-- the novel is set before the Married Women’s Property Act). Needless to say, complications abound.

Also contains criticism of over-indulgence in physical exercise and an early version of the locked-room mystery.