This course will focus on three nineteenth-century European novels. Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1856), Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) and Theodor Fontane’s Effi Briest (1894). All novels will be read in translation. Apart from literary appreciation, we will focus on legal, historical and philosophic questions in relation to nineteenth-century marriage and divorce. Why was the theme of female adultery so prevalent in novels of the period? To what extent are these novels realist accounts of marital distress, or do they function as enforcers of or, critiques of, nineteenth-century gender politics? Students will also read relevant excerpts from Rousseau, Kant and Hegel, supplied by the course convener, for which there will be a small charge. This seminar assumes participation by all members of the group. Students will be asked to offer short presentations. For ease of reference, the Oxford World Classics edition of the novels is preferred.