A Dirty, Filthy Book: Sex, Scandal, and One Womans Fight in the Victorian Trial of the Century

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An empowering and gripping story of a pioneer of women's rights written by a critically-acclaimed writer and historian, for fans of Hallie Rubenhold, Hermione Lee and prize-winning Victorian histories. London, 1877. A petite young woman stands before an all-male jury, about to risk everything. She takes a breath, and opens her defence. Annie Besant and her confidant Charles Bradlaugh are on trial for the unforgivable crime of publishing and selling a birth control pamphlet. Defending herself - 45 years before the first woman was called to the English Bar - before Britain's highest judge on the charge of obscenity, Annie argued that it was a woman's right to be able to choose when to have children. At a time when women were expected to be obedient and in the home, Annie's fearless voice was a sensation. Catapulting her into the public eye, the riveting trial scandalised newspapers, captivated the British public and held a spotlight to ideas about sex, censorship and morality. Drawing on unpublished archives, private papers and court-room transcripts - and featuring an incredible cast including Queen Victoria, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, match girls, and Big Ben's prison room - A Dirty, Filthy Book tells the gripping story of a little-known pioneer who refused to accept the role that the establishment assigned her, and chose instead to resist.

Author Bio

Michael Meyer is a critically-acclaimed author and journalist who has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and many other outlets. A Fulbright scholar, Guggenheim fellow, Berlin Prize and Whiting Award winner, Meyer has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Cullman Center, MacDowell, and the University of Oxford's Centre for Life-Writing. He is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches nonfiction writing.