Babel Tower by A. S. Byatt

Author:A. S. Byatt [Byatt, A. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307819581
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

XI

Arnold Begbie has converted Frederica’s pitiful narrative into a Petition for Divorce.

In the High Court of Justice

Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division

(Divorce)

To the High Court of Justice

Dated the 1st of April 1965

The petition of Frederica Reiver showeth:—

(1) That on October 19th 1959 the petitioner, Frederica Reiver, then Frederica Potter, was lawfully married to Nigel Reiver (hereinafter called “the respondent”) at the Parish Church, Spessendborough, in the County of Herefordshire.

(2) That after the said marriage the petitioner and the respondent lived and cohabited at divers addresses and finally at Bran House, Longbarrow, in the County of Herefordshire.

(3) That there is one child of the petitioner and the respondent now living, namely Leo Alexander, born on the 14th of July 1960.

(4) That the petitioner proposes the following arrangements for support, care and upbringing of the said Leo Alexander. He will live with the petitioner at 42 Hamelin Square, London SE11, a house shared with Miss Agatha Mond and her daughter, Saskia Felicity Mond. He will start school in September at the William Blake Primary School, Lebanon Grove, London SE11, in company with the said Saskia Felicity Mond; the petitioner intends to apply for maintenance as hereinafter set out.

(5) That since the celebration of the said marriage the respondent has treated the petitioner with cruelty.

(6) That the respondent, who is a man of violent temper, has frequently nagged, sworn at, shouted at and struck the petitioner.

(7) That on September 28th 1964 the respondent attacked the petitioner with several blows to the head, ribs and back; that when she sought refuge in the bathroom, he turned off the mains-electricity to the house, in order to frighten her, and kept her imprisoned therein for several hours.

(8) That on Sunday 4th October 1964 the respondent again attacked the petitioner in her bedroom, so that she ran out of the house in fear and hid in the stables. That when she came out of hiding, the respondent was waiting with an axe, with which he threatened her; that when she ran out into the fields he pursued her, abusing her verbally, and threw the axe, wounding her in the hip.

(9) That before the specific acts of cruelty set out above the respondent treated the petitioner with neglect, spending most of his time away from home, in the company of business friends, beyond the reasonable requirements of the pursuit of his business. That he insisted that the petitioner and child remain at all times in Bran House. That he treated visiting friends of the petitioner with rudeness, and unreasonably refused ever to entertain them or to allow his wife to see them.

(10) That there is reason to believe that the respondent has committed adultery, since the petitioner was diagnosed in November 1964 as having contracted a venereal disease. The petitioner has sworn an affidavit that the disease could have been communicated by no one but the respondent.

(11) That the petitioner discovered a large collection of lewd and filthy publications in the respondent’s wardrobe.

(12) That the petitioner has not in

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