The Invention of Murder
How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
1st Edition
Published on 6. January 2011
556 pages
978-0-00-735247-0 (ISBN)
Description
"We are a trading community, a commercial people. Murder is doubtless a very shocking offence, nevertheless as what is done is not to be undone, let us make our money out of it." Punch.
Murder in nineteenth-century Britain was ubiquitous - not necessarily in quantity but in quality. This was the era of penny-bloods, early crime fiction and melodramas for the masses. This was a time when murder and entertainment were firmly entwined.
In this meticulously researched and compelling book, Judith Flanders, author of Consuming Passions, takes us back in time to explore some of the most gripping, gruesome and mind-boggling murders of the nineteenth-century. Covering the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, as well as the lesser known but equally shocking acts of Burke and Hare, and Thurtell and Hunt, Flanders looks at how murder was regarded by the wider British population - and how it became a form of popular entertainment.
Filled to the brim with rich source material - ranging from studies of plays, novels and contemporary newspaper articles, A Social History of Murder brings to life a neglected dimension of British social history in a completely new and exciting way.
Murder in nineteenth-century Britain was ubiquitous - not necessarily in quantity but in quality. This was the era of penny-bloods, early crime fiction and melodramas for the masses. This was a time when murder and entertainment were firmly entwined.
In this meticulously researched and compelling book, Judith Flanders, author of Consuming Passions, takes us back in time to explore some of the most gripping, gruesome and mind-boggling murders of the nineteenth-century. Covering the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, as well as the lesser known but equally shocking acts of Burke and Hare, and Thurtell and Hunt, Flanders looks at how murder was regarded by the wider British population - and how it became a form of popular entertainment.
Filled to the brim with rich source material - ranging from studies of plays, novels and contemporary newspaper articles, A Social History of Murder brings to life a neglected dimension of British social history in a completely new and exciting way.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Reflowable
File size
3,47 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-00-735247-0 (9780007352470)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Judith Flanders
The Invention of Murder
How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
Book
09/2011
HarperPress
€16.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Judith Flanders
The Invention of Murder
How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
Book
01/2011
HarperPress
€44.76
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Person
Judith Flanders is the author of the bestselling 'The Victorian House' (2003) and 'Consuming Passions' (2006), as well as the critically acclaimed 'A Circle of Sisters' (2001) - a biography of Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynder and Louisa Baldwin - which was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. She is a frequent contributor to the 'Daily Telegraph', the 'Guardian', the 'Evening Standard', and the 'Times Literary Supplement'. She lives in London.
