Scotch Verdict

Lillian Faderman

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.

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From Library Journal

Scotch Verdict is the factual account of the story dramatized in Lillian Hellman’s fine 1934 play, The Children’s Hour . In actuality, the episode in which a student accused two schoolmistresses of participating in a lesbian relationship took place in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1811. After their reputations and careers were ruined, the two brought a libel suit against their accuser. According to LJ ‘s reviewer, Federman ‘abstracted, rearranged, and enriched the case transcript to create a book that reads like a novel yet breathtakingly demonstrates how preconceptions color interpretation and how impossible it is to find ‘the truth’ ‘ ( LJ 6/15/83). A solid addition to any feminist/women’s studies collection.

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Details

ISBN	9780704300897
Genre	True Crime
Publication Date	01-Oct-88
Publisher	Quartet Books
Format	Trade Paperback
No. of Pages	320
Language	English
Rating	NotRated
BookID	11166