The 1875 civil trial of cleric Henry Ward Beecher for adultery and
alienation of affection was to its era what the O.J. Simpson trial
has been to ours - a never-ending source of confusion, position
taking, division, and even, occasionally, clarification of
conviction and belief. Now, long awaiting the right historian, this
19th-century scandal has finally found him. Containing all the
ingredients of a classic novel, this affair of heart and mind
(though probably not of body) between one of the nation's most
respected and influential preachers and his parishioner, Elizabeth
Tilton, wife of Beecher's intimate friend Theodore Tilton, riveted
the nation's attention during the high tide of American
Victorianism. Fox (Boston Univ.), an accomplished student of
American culture and religion (Reinhold Niebuhr, 1986, etc.), draws
from the scandal every conceivable element of historical
significance. And while remaining sympathetic to all its complex,
accomplished, sometimes outsize characters and, to boot, telling a
whopping good tale, he stands at a critic's due distance from his
sources and from previous commentators on them. In Fox's hands, it
is a story both of love exalted, tried, and betrayed and of how
fiction, as well as religion, gave meaning to contemporary lives.
While firmly a historian's book, it is, as a narrative of many
narratives, also deeply marked by the postmodern approach that
offers readers many views and many readings of each event - not all
of equal plausibility or validity (for here the historian steps
in), but of equal historical interest, significance, and meaning.
The scandal occurred at, and accelerated, the moment when Victorian
culture was poised to dissolve into more recognizably modern,
20th-century mass culture. Scandal became entertainment, private
acts became public possessions, and norms became "values." At times
Fox comes dangerously close to loading his tale with so many kinds
of significance that it snaps, yet he skillfully holds it together
until the end. A compelling analysis, written by a master hand, of
a major event in American culture. (Kirkus Reviews)
The nation's leading minister stands accused of adultery. He
vehemently denies the charge but confesses to being on "the ragged
edge of despair." His alleged lover is a woman of mystical faith,
nearly "Catholic" in her piety. Her husband, a famous writer, sues
the minister for damages. A six-month trial ends inconclusively,
but it holds the nation in thrall. It produces gripping drama,
scathing cartoons, and soul-searching editorials. "Trials of
Intimacy" is the story of a scandal that shook American culture to
the core in the 1870s because the key players were such vaunted
moral leaders. In that respect there has never been another case
like it--except "The Scarlet Letter," to which it was constantly
compared.
Henry Ward Beecher was pastor of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church and for
many the "representative man" of mid-nineteenth century America.
Elizabeth Tilton was the wife of Beecher's longtime intimate friend
Theodore. His accusation of "criminal conversation" between Henry
and Elizabeth confronted the American public with entirely new
dilemmas about religion and intimacy, privacy and publicity,
reputation and celebrity. The scandal spotlighted a series of comic
and tragic loves and betrayals among these three figures, with a
supporting cast that included Victoria Woodhull, Susan B. Anthony,
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
To readers at the time, the Beecher-Tilton Scandal was an
irresistible mystery. Richard Fox puts his readers into that same
reverberating story, while offering it as a timeless tale of love,
deception, faith, and the confounding indeterminacy of truth.
"Trials of Intimacy" revises our conception of nineteenth-century
morals and passions. And it is an American history richly resonant
with present-day dramas.
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