Absolutely fascinating biography of both Thomas Day, his many love-interests and his brilliant social circle. I'm not sure what is more disturbing to me about Thomas Day's attempt to adopt an orphan child to raise up to be his wife -- that his society found this behavior eccentric but acceptable (to a degree anyway) or that so much of what we currently accept as educational theory grew out of the same ground. That's fairly inarticulate, but I really appreciated the wonderful depiction of an historical era that I'm fairly unfamiliar with, the straightforward narrative, and the somehow non-intrusive reality check offered by the author at regular intervals (remember, he's looking for someone to live in a miserable hovel and cater to his every whim, who wouldn't want that?). Ultimately, I think Thomas Day was a misguided sadist, but I'm fascinated that he was also an influential anti-slavery advocate and a man beloved by his friends for his virtuous life.
I'm glad that Moore took the time to flesh out Sabrina's story, and acknowledge her -- this is equally her story, and that is always apparent. ( )

A very readable tale of a rich Victorian chap who was likely autistic and fixated on finding a wife who met his list of stringent criteria. The narrative drags at times (the last few chapters could have done with some condensing) and the frequent judgey statements about the obvious hypocrisy of the main character seem unneeded and condescending but, overall, a solid read. ( )

Interesting topic. But the author seemed to run out of info and go off on barely related tangents. ( )

Well-written but such a creepy subject it was not enjoyable. ( )

I picked this up via Netgalley; it is a documentation of a case in which a picky young bachelor decided to rear a couple of orphan girls as potential mates. Inspired by writings of the day which described the ideal rearing of male children, after a fruitless search for the virtuous woman of his ideals, Thomas Day decides to apply his skills and theories to selecting and rearing a wife from childhood years. There is, of course, no happy ending, unlike the many fictional spin-offs inspired by this story, but only a somewhat sad chronicle of what happens when a man tries to create what he thinks is the perfect future wife.

I found the writing style to be a little dry, though highly readable. This leans more towards the historical than the psychological or sociological, the latter of which are my interests, which is probably why I didn't find it nearly as interesting as I had hoped. ( )