Man and Wife (1870) is one of the novels in which Wilkie Collins undertook to expose social injustice - in this case the absurdity inherent in British marriage law. It is his ninth novel. As someone who briefly studied law on his own, Collins had a strong interest in law, especially the way they were applied to home life. He himself never married, although he cared for two separate families living close together in London's trendy West End. The novel explores both the social and legal issues posed by bad law and the atrocities inflicted on women trapped in abusive marriages.