7 - A Private Affair

Summary

One exception, in these new relationships, was that with Sarah Elwes – the wife of John Elwes, from whom she was separated, following a criminal conversation case and an ecclesiastical divorce.This relationship enables us to see further into the complex and divided social worlds that existed in London in the period and sheds new light on Godwin’s life and his activities in the second half of the decade. It also allows us to explore some of the complexities of social and sexual relations in London, perhaps especially for a man who predicted the end of marriage and the development of attachment solely on the basis of intellectual worth.