After hearing about this book on Radio 4, I got it on Kindle (£2.99!) and am about a third of the way through.
It's a fascinating glimpse into the potential horrors of married life in Georgian England, and makes even the most gruesome MN threads seem quite upbeat by comparison. So much so that I am feeling quite stressed, reading it. His mind-bogglingly devious scheming, his sadistic brutality, his selfish destruction of everything worth having, and his wife's absolute isolation and helplessness in the face of all this... I can only force myself to continue reading by clinging to the knowledge that he does eventually get his come-uppance! And by feeling immensely grateful that life for British women is (or can be) so much better now that we are allowed to exist as humans in our own right.
The author has an elegant writing style that I sometimes find frustrating when reading sleepily in bed: she tends to put the subject in the middle of the sentence, or later. So constructions like "Despite xxx, and given the xxx, in an attempt to xxx, SUBJECT did this." I find myself having to re-read quite a few bits to grasp the full content.
Anyone else enjoying this book, and/or reading it with horror?