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Attitudes to illegitimacy in nineteenth-century fiction

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guest54
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« on: November 19, 2011, 12:46:55 pm »

Let us begin with Wilkie Collins's "No Name," published in 1862 in three volumes. The novel starts sedately enough in Somersetshire. The Vanstones are a happy, comfortably off family; husband, wife, two daughters and a faithful governess. But it emerges that the parents are not legally married, and although they eventually legitimize their union, they neglect to correct their will. Consequently the document is invalid and the father's fortune goes to an ill-natured brother, and after his death to the brother's cretin son, Noel Vanstone.

Norah, the older Vanstone sister, becomes a governess. Magdalen, the younger, becomes a stage artiste, with the assistance of an amiable rogue, "Captain" Horatio Wragge. The main concern of the subsequent narrative is Magdalen's resourceful campaign to recover her father's fortune, aided by Wragge. A master of disguise, she bewitches Noel Vanstone, and as "Miss Bygrave" succeeds in luring away his villainous housekeeper, Mrs Lecount, long enough to marry the heir. But on her return, Lecount persuades Noel into changing his will. She also penetrates Magdalen's disguise. On her husband's death, Magdalen can inherit nothing without revealing her deceptions. But by further ingenious detective work she confounds Lecount by discovering another will which returns her father's money to its "rightful" owners.

Norah marries a rich cousin, George Bartram, who inevitably turns out to be the Vanstone heir. Magdalen marries a naval captain; Wragge is enriched by having invested in a proprietary medicine.
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2011, 10:28:47 am »

Dostoevsky treats the issue of illegitimacy several times that I can recall.

In THE IDIOT, Prince Myshkin is blackmailed by a man who claims to be the illegitimate son of his benefactor.  But instead of pursuing any legal course against the blackmailer, the "idiotic" Myshkin takes pity upon his circumstances, and even tries to befriend him. 

In another of his short stories - THE ADOLESCENT - Dostoevsky imagines a young man, Dolgoruky, who is the illegitimate son of a an elderly and disreputable womaniser and drinker, Versilov.  The novellla is in fact an analogous microcosm of the Russia of Dostoevsky's own times..  Versilov represents the unashamedly unreformed "old guard", who are very happy in their ways, have a comfortable inherited income, and are quite content to dissipate their time in drink and debauchery, seeing no wrong in it. The son, by contrast, has ambitions ("he wanted to become another Rothschild"), reads books, and believes that hard work and study can attain those ambitions. Being illegitimate, he stands to inherit nothing of Versilov's money - if, indeed, Versilov doesn't blow it all on wenching and vodka in the meantime.  The illegitimacy can be seen as a symbol of the failed line of inheritance between one generation of Russians, and the new generation of which Dostoevsky was a member.

Also in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV there is in fact a fourth brother, Pavel Smerdyakov, who is illegitimate. In a neat homage to Macbeth, Smerdyakov is the fourth of them, and also the murderer.

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guest54
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« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2011, 09:20:21 am »

Yes - Dostoyeffski - a fine pedigree (of at least a literary kind) there!

Meredith's three-volume novel One of Our Conquerors came out in 1891, and it is a striking study of marital misery. Victor Radnor marries a wealthy widow, only to discover that he really loves her young companion, Natalia. Natalia and Victor subsequently set up home together, and have a daughter, Nesta Victoria. Victor is prosperous and successful, but as she grows up Nesta comes to realize that she is unrespectable. The facts of her birth complicate her relationship with an elegible suitor, the Hon. Dudley Sowerby. Things are made even more difficult when it emerges that her friend Mrs. Marsett is also living in sin. The novel ends tragically. Overcome by shame, Natalia dies; Victor's wife outlives her (thus removing any possibility of legitimizing Nesta). Nesta eventually marries Captain Dartrey Fenellan, who loves her for herself.
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t-p
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« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2011, 03:10:03 pm »

I think although attitudes to illegitimacy changed now children still suffer if there is no father because there are economic consequences if there is no father .
But children make something of themselves even in one parent households. I recently listened on In Tune about tenor Noah Stewart from the USA and he probably was raised in one parent household. His mother was very supportive although their lived in Harlem in NY.
She found possibility to find good school for him and also he wanted to make something of himself.

Although attitudes changed still many people (at least middle class) still get married and try to have legitimate children I think.  Most people I know marry when they have children.
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guest54
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« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2011, 11:27:52 am »

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