#AUSReadingMonth 2019 An Unconventional Wife

• Author:  Mary Hoban
  
• Title: An Unconventional Wife: The Life of Julia Sorell Arnold
  
• Published: 2019
  
• Genre: biography
  
• Trivia: WINNER QLD Non-Fiction Book Award  2019
• Trivia: WINNER QLD History Book Award 2019
• List of Challenges 2019
• Monthly plan
• #AWW2019    @AusWomenWriter
• #AUSReadingMonth 2019  @ BronasBooks
• #NonFicNov

 

Hook: introduction 

1. Ms Hoban explains what drew
2. …her to write about Julia Sorell Arnold
3. It was very personal  text that
4. …made this reader eager to continue reading!
5. I had to find out if Tom Arnold could
6. …tame the high spirited Julia Sorell
7. ..the the ruling belle of Hobart of Tasmania
8. ..into the Victorian ideal of a wife?

 

Conflict:  Tom vs Julia …and religion

1. In the world that Julia and Tom inhabited
2. religion was never simply about belief.
3. It was about position. economic stability and place in society.
4. This was true for Tom and Julia…and their children.

 

Tom’s weak point:

1. He had a tyrannical understanding of marriage.
2. He turned the blowtorch onto Julia.
3. He blamed her for all that had happened to them.

 

Julia’s  strong point:

1. For a woman….marriage was a destiny,
2. …nothing more, nothing less.
3. But Julia would be…
4. a revolutionary wife.
5. not go where Tom took her
6. not believe what he believed
7. not do as he asked.

 

Conclusion:

1. This is a magnificent biography!
2. Mary Hoban just swept me away to Tasmania and
3. …then on to Brussels, England and Ireland.
4. I was so engrossed in the story I had no time to take notes!
5. Julia felt like a very modern woman…in a Victorian world:
6. She was fiercely independent.
7. Tom radiates toxic masculinity in every chapter.
8. As in many marriages…partners hope to change each other’s behavior.
9. We read in this book the collision course
10. that Tom and Julia were destined to follow.
11. Tom’s wife must in all things submit to him.
12. Julia cannot give up her own soul.
13. Their relationship becomes a battle to the death.
14. Julia refused to adhere to the ideal of a Victorian woman.
15. She refused to be silent.
16. #Excellent biography!

 

Last Thoughts:  (feedback to @bronasbooks)

1. I rarely get ‘swept’ away with a biography but
2. my heart just went out to Julia Sorell Arnold!
3. Mary Hoban writes with a flair that touches on a novel….
4. it is a well-crafted, beautifully rendered meditation on
5. abandonment (Julia – mother)
6. marriage (opposites attract)
7. religion (Catholic and Protestant….sharing the same bed!)
8. grief, (loss beloved father; children [stillborn, sickness])
9. the ‘can’t live with you…but can’t live without you’
10. ….type relationship between Julia and Arnold.
11. It seem distance does make the heart grow fonder
12. …and not to mention 9 children!
13. I could go on and on
14. ….but I hope this book is on your TBR
15. …great read during Xmas holidays!