Suzanne Rintoul identifies an important contradiction in Victorian representations of abuse: the simultaneous compulsion to expose and to obscure brutality towards women in intimate relationships. Through case studies and literary analysis, this book illustrates how intimate violence was both spectacular and unspeakable in the Victorian period.
"Suzanne Rintoul's Intimate Violence and Victorian Print Culture is an insightful, diverse, and serious study of nineteenth-century depiction of battered women. ... While Rintoul makes substantial claims about how violence against women was represented, she provides evidence through a thoughtfully curated selection of texts, allowing her relatively brief 160-page study to be surprisingly diverse. ... The author provides occasional detailed descriptions of abuse and graphic illustrations, but only when there is a true need." (Sara Melton, Victorians Institute Journal, Vol. 43, 2015)