THE BLUESTOCKING

Delman's second foray into the mid-19th century (Ain't Goin' to Glory, 1991) is a period/courtroom hybrid—an Age of Presumed Innocence based on the scandalous 1851 case in which America's foremost tragedian and his wife launched countersuits for divorce, each accusing the other of adultery. The principals in the case would have gladdened the hearts of the tabloids. Edwin Forrest, already famous for his magnetic performances and his thespian high-handedness, had recently achieved notoriety of a different kind when a demonstration against Forrest's British rival William Macready staged by the Friends of Forrest, a group of supporters headed by the legendary publicist Ned Buntline, left 22 dead outside the Astor Theater. Catherine Sinclair Forrest, his British wife, was almost equally notorious in more select circles for her advanced views, which saw marriage as economic enslavement and monogamy as unnatural. The two opposing attorneys were Charles O'Conor, who would go on to defend Jefferson Davis and prosecute Boss Tweed, and John Van Buren, son of the former President. And the haplessly stiff-necked crowd of luminaries caught in the crossfire ran the gamut from the late actress Josephine Clifton (who may have enjoyed a liaison with Forrest eight years ago) to Nathaniel Parker Willis, New York's leading magazine editor (publicly accused by the outraged husband as ``the seducer of Catherine Forrest''). In order to reach a verdict, the jury was asked to consider whether Forrest's repeated visits to a house of ill-repute, or his wife's receiving a letter identifying her with the indomitably chaste heroine of a George Sand novel (gasp!), constituted more incriminating behavior. The high-profile players, and the determination of the court to maintain decorum while recording scabrous accusations, make the court proceedings as fascinating as most fictional murder trials. Only in the conventional offstage flourishes—pages from Catherine's diary, the romance of a journalist with one of Catherine's supporters—does Delman disappoint.