| Edition |
First Pegasus Books hardcover edition. |
| Description |
312 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), color facsimiles, portraits (some color) ; 24 cm |
| Note |
"From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock"--Dust jacket. |
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"As seen on the BBC as 'A Very British Murder""--Dust jacket. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-306) and index. |
| Contents |
Part one. How to enjoy a murder. 1. A connoisseur in murder -- 2. The highway -- 3. The watchmen -- 4. The murder circuit -- 5. House of wax -- 6. True crime -- 7. Charles Dickens, crime writer -- 8. The ballads of Maria Marten -- 9. Stage fright -- 10. The Bermondsey Horror -- Part two. Enter the detective. 11. Middle-class murders and medical gentlemen -- 12. The good wife -- 13. Detective fever -- 14. A new sensation -- 15. "It is worse than a crime, Violet..." -- 16. Monsters and men -- 17. The adventure of the forensic scientist -- 18. Revelations of a lady detective -- Part three. The golden age. 19. The women between the wars -- 20. The duchess of death -- 21. A life less ordinary -- 22. The great game -- 23. Snobbery with violence -- 24. The dangerous edge of things -- Postscript: The decline of English murder. |
| Summary |
From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to the cosy crimes of the Golden Age, renowned historian Lucy Worsley explores the evolution of the traditional English murder—and reveals why we are so fascinated by this sinister subject. Murder—a dark, shameful deed, the last resort of the desperate or a vile tool of the greedy. And a very strange, very English obsession. But where did this fixation develop? And what does it tell us about ourselves?In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early nineteenth century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria’s lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism. At a point during the birth of modern England, murder entered our national psyche, and it’s been a part of us ever since. The Art of the English Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime—and a riveting investigation into the English criminal soul by one of our finest historians. |
| Subject |
Murder -- Great Britain -- Case studies.
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Murder -- Social aspects -- Great Britain -- History.
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National characteristics, British.
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Murder in mass media.
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Murder in literature.
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Murder in art.
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Murder -- Great Britain -- History.
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Crime in popular culture.
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Crime in literature.
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Detective and mystery stories -- History.
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| Added Title |
Very British murder
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Very British murder (Television program)
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| ISBN |
1605986348 hardcover |
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9781605986340 hardcover |
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