In 1888, a then-unknown writer published an article in the

which made her notorious overnight and spurred one of the most passionate public debates of the late Victorian period (Brown et al). The writer was Mona Caird, and the article entitled “Marriage”, in which Caird declared the venerable Victorian institution for which the article was named a “vexatious failure” and “the most hypocritical form of woman-purchase” (Caird “Marriage” 197). Caird’s statement incited a firestorm of responses—numbering over 27,000—written to the

, which were published in a series called “Is Marriage a Failure?” and later that year as a book by the same name edited by Harry Quilter (Heilmann 70). Perhaps, as Caird argued, marriage wasn’t so…

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Citation: Dunst, Maura G.. "Mona Caird". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 January 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=694, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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