Broken to Harness

Three young men in London chambers marry, work and fail at various rates, and the harness of the title tightens on each differently. Edmund Yates was a Post Office clerk who became a famous editor, and quarrelled with Thackeray in the row that split the Garrick Club. The novel is a fair picture of what a young professional's marriage cost in 1864. Fifty-six plates, from Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners to Tissot's domestic scenes, mirror the marriage, money and reading of wills that shape the story.