
Deadly Encounters
Two Victorian Sensations
Richard D. Altick(Author)
University of Pennsylvania Press
Published on 18. September 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-0-8122-1756-8 (ISBN)
Description
In July 1861 London newspapers excitedly reported two violent crimes, both the stuff of sensational fiction. One involved a retired army major, his beautiful mistress and her illegitimate child, blackmail and murder. In the other, a French nobleman was accused of trying to kill his son in order to claim the young man's inheritance. The press covered both cases with thoroughness and enthusiasm, narrating events in a style worthy of a popular novelist, and including lengthy passages of testimony. Not only did they report rumor as well as what seemed to be fact, they speculated about the credibility of witnesses, assessed character, and decided guilt. The public was enthralled.
Richard D. Altick demonstrates that these two cases, as they were presented in the British press, set the tone for the Victorian "age of sensation." The fascination with crime, passion, and suspense has a long history, but it was in the 1860s that this fascination became the vogue in England. Altick shows that these crimes provided literary prototypes and authenticated extraordinary passion and incident in fiction with the "shock of actuality." While most sensational melodramas and novels were by lesser writers, authors of the stature of Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Trollope, Hardy, and Wilkie Collins were also influenced by the spirit of the age and incorporated sensational elements in their work.
Richard D. Altick demonstrates that these two cases, as they were presented in the British press, set the tone for the Victorian "age of sensation." The fascination with crime, passion, and suspense has a long history, but it was in the 1860s that this fascination became the vogue in England. Altick shows that these crimes provided literary prototypes and authenticated extraordinary passion and incident in fiction with the "shock of actuality." While most sensational melodramas and novels were by lesser writers, authors of the stature of Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Trollope, Hardy, and Wilkie Collins were also influenced by the spirit of the age and incorporated sensational elements in their work.
Reviews / Votes
"Altick's book vividly preserves an important and fascinating element of daily Victorian life. As such, it is the best sort of historical scholarship: the kind that puts us in close touch with a lost world and with people very much like ourselves." (Smithsonian) "An engaging study in historical sociology." (Washington Post)More details
Edition
New Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
17 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8122-1756-8 (9780812217568)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2012
University of Pennsylvania Press
€28.99
Available for download
Person
Richard D. Altick is Regents Professor of English, Emeritus, at Ohio State University. He is the author of many other books, among them Victorian Studies in Scarlet; Victorian People and Ideas; The Shows of London, A Panoramic History, 1600-1862; and Paintings from Books: Art and Literature in Britain 1760-1900.