Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York

What could possibly go wrong in a wealthy matriarch's country home when her dilettante son, his restless wife, and his widowed brother live there together? Strong Passions, set in the vanished world of Edith Wharton's "Old New York," recounts the true story of a tumultuous marriage. In 1862, Mary Strong stunned her husband, Peter, by confessing to an affair with his brother. Peter sued Mary for divorce for adultery, but not before she accused him of being unfaithful and kidnapped their child.

Social history at its most intimate, Barbara Weisberg portrays a family and country in turmoil as they faced conflicts over women's changing roles, men's financial power over wives, and male custody of children. She presents the chaotic courtroom and panoply of witnesses who provided contradictory and often-salacious testimony. Then she asks us to be the jury, deciding each spouse's guilt and the possibility of a just resolution.