Holy Deadlock is a 1934 satirical novel by the English author A. P. Herbert, which aimed to highlight the perceived inadequacies and absurdities of contemporary divorce law. The book took a particularly lenient view of the need for divorces, which it characterised as "a relief from misfortune, not a crime",[1] and demonstrated how the current system created an environment which encouraged the participants to commit perjury and adultery. The book was a major element in the popular debate about the liberalisation of divorce law in the mid-1930s, and helped pave the way for the 1937 statutory reforms.
In the 1920s and 1930s, English law did not allow for divorce by mutual consent, but rather required proof of adultery, or violence by one party; misconduct by both parties could lead to the divorce being refused. Divorce was seen as a remedy for the innocent against the guilty. So this had the weird consequence, castigated in the book, that if one spouse had committed adultery, they could be divorced, but if both had, they couldn't – unless the court chose to exercise its discretion. That discretion was itself covered by peculiar rules of its own. To add a further hurdle, the law strictly prohibited "collusion" by the parties. This could extend to any sort of negotiation between them. An official—the King's Proctor—was charged with seeking out any evidence of the parties working together to secure a divorce.
Many couples of the time chose to petition on the grounds of adultery, even when no adultery had been committed. In this situation, a popular solution was what was known as "hotel evidence": the man and an uninvolved woman would travel to a seaside resort for a weekend, and go around publicly and ostentatiously as husband and wife. In the morning, they would take great care to be observed by the chambermaid in bed together when she brought in their breakfast. The pair would return home, and when the case came to court the maid would be called on to give evidence as a witness to this fictitious "adultery". After the trial, there would then be a six-month waiting period until the decree nisi granted at the trial was made absolute, and any misconduct by the "innocent" party in this time—or any evidence of collusion coming to light—could annul the divorce.
In effect, to secure an amicable divorce, one or both of the couple would have to commit perjury several times over—and potentially be liable for criminal penalties in so doing. Whilst the courts would often turn a blind eye to it, this was by no means guaranteed, and a system which virtually mandated perjury was felt by many to be scandalous.
Origins
Divorce law reform had long been one of Herbert's "small causes", for which he agitated in the pages of Punch. His first attempt to bring this particular cause to a broader audience was a play, The White Witch (1924), concerning a couple in a divorce suit who both protest that they had not committed adultery. The play was a failure, and closed after six weeks; Herbert felt that the "fatal" problem had been that "nobody made love" in the play. Arnold Bennett wrote that he was "very disappointed indeed" by it, and E. V. Lucas wrote that he loathed "adultery discussions in public. The theatre ... should be jollier than that".[2]
Herbert had written three novels, with varying degrees of success. The Secret Battle (1919), a critically acclaimed war novel, sold poorly on its original publication but was republished in 1930, and went through five subsequent editions.[3]The House by the River (1920) was a little-noted crime novel, which began to introduce elements of comedy into a tragic storyline.[4]The Water Gipsies (1930), a story about canal life, was a broad success, which went on to sell a quarter of a million copies and attract comparison to the works of Charles Dickens.[5] By 1932, he was contemplating a fourth novel to capitalise on this last success; his editor at Punch, E. V. Knox, encouraged him to put aside his theatrical work to focus on writing it.[6]
He chose to make another attempt at writing on the theme of divorce reform. During a sailing holiday around Brittany with Sir Edward Spears and his wife Mary Borden in late 1932, he filled a notebook with the outline of what was to become Holy Deadlock.[7]
Before the novel was published, however, he took up the theme in one of his Misleading Cases, "Not a Crime".[8] This was first published in Still More Misleading Cases (1933), and unusually does not seem to have been published in Punch beforehand.[9] In this, he presented an innocent couple, married in haste during the First World War, who wished to divorce. The reader was told that after a farcical series of events had spun the case out, the decree nisi was refused because the wife (the petitioner) had been unfaithful after the trial, at which point the husband announced that he was fed up with the whole business and, as a party who was actually innocent, would it be possible for him to divorce his wife rather than the other way around? This led to a certain quandary: "Either Mr. Pale has committed misconduct, in which case the couple cannot be divorced, or he has not committed misconduct, in which case he can be sent to prison for pretending that he has".[10] In this case, Herbert was able to let his judge give the "right" answer to the dilemma: he declared that the marriage was dissolved upon the suit of both parties, with no guilt attaching to either, and gave a two-page conclusion in which he decried the law as "illogical, cruel, barbarous and disgusting".[11]
Plot summary
Pardon me, Mr. Adam, but have either of you committed adultery? We are not here, Mr. Adam, to secure your happiness, but to preserve the institution of marriage and the purity of the home. And therefore one of you must commit adultery ... someone has to behave impurely in order to uphold the Christian idea of purity, someone has to confess in public to a sinful breach of the marriage vows in order that the happily married may point at him or her and feel themselves secure and virtuous.[12]
The novel's plot is very similar to that of "Not a Crime", expanded and presented with a tragic ending rather than the earlier deus ex machina. The protagonists are a faultless and honest young couple, with the everyman names of John Adam and Mary Eve, who married impetuously, are now amicably separated, and wish to divorce so that they can remarry; neither has committed adultery nor desired to. Because of the lack of legal provision, they are compelled to collude to present a fictional cause for divorce; Mary asks Adam to "act like a gentleman" and provide the pretext, as her fiancé, Martin Seal, cannot be named as a co-respondent without risking his job (he works as an announcer for the BBC). After his first attempt to obtain the necessary evidence, the maid refuses to identify him in court and the case collapses; at the second attempt, his "partner" develops measles and has to be supported in the hotel for several weeks at great expense. A decree nisi is granted but, during the waiting period, Mary spends the night with Seal and is reported by an acquaintance to the King's Proctor, who reports that the divorce should not be granted. She fights the case, but the judge refuses to exercise any discretion in her favour, and declines to grant a divorce. By the end of the book, Mary and Adam are separated but remain legally married. Seal has lost his position after being named in the final court case, but can choose to live with Mary without excessive social stigma. However, John is a broken man, legally unable to marry his lover—and, as she is a school headmistress, socially unable to continue associating with her.[13] On the last page, he departs in the company of a prostitute, announcing that he intends to "behave like a gentleman—at last!"
"Queer thing," said Mr. Boom after his seventh oyster. "Just an ordinary English collusive divorce case—thousands like them every year. And all goes well until people start telling the truth. Your part of it—the part that was all lies from beginning to end—oh, yes, I know—isn't questioned at all."[14]
Reaction
The book sold more than ninety thousand copies,[15] and was selected by the Book of the Month Club in the United States.[16] It was widely discussed at the time, and was a "sensation on both sides of the Atlantic".[17] It has been compared to Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, which also described a wealthy couple colluding to obtain a divorce, although the two were very different in tone.[18]
Public reaction was widespread, with Herbert receiving a vast amount of correspondence, much of it under the belief that he himself was unhappily married. Rudyard Kipling summarised much of the reaction when he wrote that the book made him "...sick. I knew things were pretty heathen in that department... but I didn't realise they were worse than heathen".[15] The novel has been noted as a major step in influencing public opinion to support a liberalisation of the divorce laws,[17] though Herbert himself would claim that it merely "helped to create a more favourable attitude".[19]
From a legal standpoint, it has been seen as a "classically excellent" example of how to provide complex legal exposition through fiction, and at one point was used as a textbook;[20] a legal reviewer described it as "a singularly accurate presentation of the law [and] an admirable picture of divorce practice in England".[21] As well as the facts of the law, the novel detailed the practical intricacies which were routinely used to get around it, and highlighted the absurdity and human costs of the existing situation.[22]
However, it focused almost entirely on the legal aspects; the broader social issues were not discussed, and the opponents of reform portrayed as "only self-righteous bigots and nice old clergymen incapable of reason". The lawyers were shown as disinterested and well-informed figures who would tirelessly pursue what they saw as their client's best interests,[23] whilst the protagonists themselves were "sacrificed ... to the sociology, but they do it with a good grace".[24]
The political overtones of the "frankly polemical attack"[25] were noted, and a shortly after publication a question was raised in the House of Commons by Frederick Macquisten, who felt that, as a result of the book, "His Majesty's judges and courts, and the legal code which they administer in matrimonial causes, are held up to public ridicule and contempt"; the Attorney-General declined to pursue the matter.[26]
Later developments
Malavika Rajkotia writes that "This novel sparked off the first divorce law reform movement in England, which led to the passing of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937".[27] Herbert continued his campaign after the publication of the book, with significant success. In 1935, he was elected to the House of Commons as an Independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University, and in his maiden speech vowed to introduce a private bill to reform divorce law. This Bill was eventually introduced in 1936, and became law as the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937, a process described in his book The Ayes Have It.
It was reported in 1939 that a film of the book was planned for the following year,[28] but it never appeared. Herbert, who had written the treatment, believed that it was vetoed by the film censor because "that official has always been a Catholic".[29]
Herbert would return to the theme of matrimonial law reform—in this case, the remarriage of divorcees—in his novel Made for Man (1957).
Divorce is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country or state. It can be said to be a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. It is the legal process of ending a marriage.
Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept exists in many cultures and shares some similarities in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Adultery is viewed by many jurisdictions as offensive to public morals, undermining the marriage relationship.
Sir Alan Patrick HerbertCH, was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and, from 1935 to 1950, an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University.
The consummation of a marriage, or simply consummation, is the first officially credited act of sexual intercourse following marriage. In many traditions and statutes of civil or religious law, the definition usually refers to penile–vaginal penetration, and some religious doctrines hold an additional requirement prohibiting contraception. In this sense, "a marriage is consummated only if the conjugal act performed deposits semen in the vagina."
No-fault divorce is the dissolution of a marriage that does not require a showing of wrongdoing by either party. Laws providing for no-fault divorce allow a family court to grant a divorce in response to a petition by either party of the marriage without requiring the petitioner to provide evidence that the defendant has committed a breach of the marital contract.
The Divorce Act is the federal Act that governs divorce in Canada. The Constitution of Canada gives the federal Parliament exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the law of marriage and divorce.
Legal responses to agunah are civil legal remedies against a spouse who refuses to cooperate in the process of granting or receiving a Jewish legal divorce or "get".
The Family Law Act 1975(Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia. It has 15 parts and is the primary piece of legislation dealing with divorce, parenting arrangements between separated parents (whether married or not), property separation, and financial maintenance involving children or divorced or separated de facto partners: in Australia. It also covers family violence. It came into effect on 5 January 1976, repealing the Matrimonial Causes Act 1961, which had been largely based on fault. On the first day of its enactment, 200 applications for divorce were filed in the Melbourne registry office of the Family Court of Australia, and 80 were filed in Adelaide, while only 32 were filed in Sydney.
Divorce law, the legal provisions for the dissolution of marriage, varies widely across the globe, reflecting diverse legal systems and cultural norms. Most nations allow for residents to divorce under some conditions except the Philippines and the Vatican City, an ecclesiastical sovereign city-state, which has no procedure for divorce. In these two countries, laws only allow annulment of marriages.
Milton's divorce tracts refer to the four interlinked polemical pamphlets—The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, The Judgment of Martin Bucer, Tetrachordon, and Colasterion—written by John Milton from 1643 to 1645. They argue for the legitimacy of divorce on grounds of spousal incompatibility. Arguing for divorce at all, let alone a version of no-fault divorce, was extremely controversial and religious figures sought to ban his tracts. Although the tracts were met with nothing but hostility and he later rued publishing them in English at all, they are important for analysing the relationship between Adam and Eve in his epic Paradise Lost. Spanning three years characterised by turbulent changes in the English printing business, they also provide an important context for the publication of Areopagitica, Milton's most famous work of prose.
The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act reformed the law on divorce, moving litigation from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts to the civil courts, establishing a model of marriage based on contract rather than sacrament and widening the availability of divorce beyond those who could afford to bring proceedings for annulment or to promote a private Bill. It was one of the Matrimonial Causes Acts 1857 to 1878.
At common law, criminal conversation, often abbreviated as crim. con., is a tort arising from adultery. "Conversation" is an old euphemism for sexual intercourse that is obsolete except as part of this term.
Christian views on divorce find their basis both in biblical sources and in texts authored by the Church Fathers of the early Christian Church, who were unanimous in the teaching regarding the issue.
The Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 is a law on divorce in the United Kingdom. It extended the grounds for divorce, which until then only included adultery, to include unlawful desertion for three years or more, cruelty, and incurable insanity, incest or sodomy.
In England and Wales, divorce is allowed under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 on the ground that the marriage has irretrievably broken down without having to prove fault or separation.
In English law, restitution of conjugal rights was an action in the ecclesiastical courts and later in the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. It was one of the actions relating to marriage, over which the ecclesiastical courts formerly had jurisdiction.
The Divorce Reform Act 1969 is an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The act reformed the law on divorce in England and Wales by enabling couples to divorce after they had been separated for two years if they both desired a divorce, or five years if only one wanted a divorce. People could end marriages that had "irretrievably broken down" and neither partner had to prove "fault". It received royal assent on 22 October 1969 and became law when it commenced on 1 January 1971.
The history of adultery in English law is a complex topic, including changing understandings of what sexual acts constituted adultery, unequal treatment of men and women under the law, and competing jurisdictions of secular and ecclesiastical authorities. Prosecution for adultery as such ceased to be possible in English law in 1970.
May Louise Seaton-Tiedeman was a prominent American-born campaigner in Britain for divorce law reform and women's suffrage, and an active member of the Ethical movement.
Made for Man is a 1958 comedy novel by the British writer A. P. Herbert. Herbert had long been a campaigner for reform to Britain's divorce laws, which had been the subject of his earlier novel Holy Deadlock. In this case the topic concerned the right of divorced couples to remarry in the Church of England. Herbert portrayed this through two couples who are unable to marry in church, with one pairing modelled on Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend. He had once divorced an actress, and so the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot marry them even though the prospective bride is his goddaughter.
References
"Book reviews". The University of Toronto Law Journal. 1 (1). University of Toronto Press: 220–221. 1935. JSTOR823900.
Gallagher, Donat: "Holy Deadlock and a Handful of Dust: AP Herbert, Evelyn Waugh and divorce law reform in the 1930s". In: J. Neville Turner & Pamela Williams, ed. (1994). The Happy Couple: Law and Literature. Federation Press. ISBN1-86287-094-2.
Herbert, A. P. (1934). Holy Deadlock (Firsted.). London: Methuen.
Herbert, A. P. (1950). Uncommon law: being sixty-six misleading cases revised and collected in one volume, including ten cases not published before (Seventhed.). London: Methuen.
Pound, Reginald (1976). A.P. Herbert: a biography. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN0-7181-1390-X.
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