Unveiling Secrets: The Untold Saga of Alias Agnes, a Gilded Age Spy Who Defied All Odds
As the author writes:
“The loss of Madeleine’s past and future was not mere romantic rhetoric. Breach of promise established that jilted women suffered injuries, depriving them of the financial security and the social and economic advantages a marriage brought. .. A woman’s security was her reputation, which was built on the notion of respectability.
For much of Victorian society, female respectability entailed chastity—this was, particularly for single women, their most significant asset as they sought the economic safety of marriage. A jilted woman was suspect due to her tarnished reputation; a seduced woman was considered ruined.”
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