The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection ...

tangotakila
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Item specifics

Condition
Very Good: A book that does not look new and has been read but is in excellent condition. No obvious ...
Signed
No
Ex Libris
No
Narrative Type
Nonfiction
Original Language
English
Inscribed
No
Intended Audience
Adults
Vintage
No
Personalize
No
Type
Nonfiction
Release Year
2014
Era
2010s
Features
Softcover
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
ISBN
9781250048530
Book Title
Invention of Murder : How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Item Length
8.2 in
Publication Year
2014
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Illustrator
Yes
Item Height
1.4 in
Author
Judith Flanders
Genre
True Crime, History
Topic
Murder / General, Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901)
Item Weight
17.6 Oz
Item Width
5.5 in
Number of Pages
576 Pages
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
St. Martin's Press
ISBN-10
1250048532
ISBN-13
9781250048530
eBay Product ID (ePID)
171685939

Product Key Features

Book Title
Invention of Murder : How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
Number of Pages
576 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2014
Topic
Murder / General, Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901)
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
True Crime, History
Author
Judith Flanders
Format
Trade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height
1.4 in
Item Weight
17.6 Oz
Item Length
8.2 in
Item Width
5.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
Reviews
This is so much more than a compendium of famous crimes...Flanders's knowledge of the period is both wide and extraordinarily deep. She writes incisively, and often with dark wit. Best of all, she had a wonderful ability to make connections and to show us familiar sights from unexpected angles...in this unrelievedly excellent book., Riveting and meticulous...Flanders balances judicious facts with lively story-telling...the research behind this book is phenomenal...THE INVENTION OF MUDER is what great non-fiction should be; as erudite as it is entertaining, as gripping as fiction despite being "stranger than fiction.', Brilliantly researched and rendered, this is an indispensible read for anyone--scholars and the general public alike--who harbors an interest in the evolution of the notion and representation of murder....Flanders presents a fascinating narrative in well-crafted and at times suitably ironic praise., Want to be appalled by a book? Then try this one...In more than 400 blood-soaked pages Judith Flanders lovingly traces the progression of notorious Victorian murders and the public's taste for them...with her expert knowledge and guidance we can shudder at the violence or the cold-calculation of murderers...excellent, well-written and hugely well-informed., Flanders' meticulous research, personable style and keen insights are bliss for anyone interested in the Victorians and their quirks., Compelling...remarkable...in this intelligent and comprehensive compendium of murder, she has left no gravestone unturned., Judith Flanders has produced a compelling study of how crime, and crime prevention, emerged as a popular obsession in 19th century Britain, and came to dominate its literature...mesmerizing., Superb... Flanders's convincing and smart synthesis of the evolution of an official police force, fictional detectives, and real-life cause célèbres will appeal to devotees of true crime and detective fiction alike., An entertaining excursion into the Victorians' taste for murder...The cast is full of swindlers and forgers and other doubtful characters., "Superb... Flanders's convincing and smart synthesis of the evolution of an official police force, fictional detectives, and real-life cause célèbres will appeal to devotees of true crime and detective fiction alike." - Publishers Weekly , starred review, Part social history, part literary history, and part penny-blood itself. In the fine tradition of its subject it both has its cake and eats it. Yum. Strychnine., A book jam-packed with fascinating details, not only about the Victorian attitude to murder, but much else besides., Plenty of gruesome detail, but also a dry humor...a valuable and well-researched account of Victorian society in Britain and its growing fascination with the ultimate crime...All human death is here., Flanders's book is more than a catalog of crimes...it builds into an alternative history of the Victorian age, its narrow, purposeful focus providing a means of seeing, from an oblique perspective, terrain which might previously have seemed familiar., Flanders brings to her writing a vivid storyteller's and nicely understated gallows humor...More important though, and far more impressive, is her tenacity in stripping away the gaudy layers of folktale and legend around the period's most notorious murders and revealing how often these inventions obscured lives of heartbreaking ordinariness., Judith Flanders displays a profound understanding of the Victorian age, encyclopedic knowledge of crime and criminals, and the popular reactions towards both. Further, she presents it with a sly, wry humor that is a perfect complement to the subject. Dare I say it would be a crime not to read this book?, Flanders has written a book rather like one of the great, rambling Victorian novels that she discusses, though most readers will find her work a lot easier, and a lot more fun... the sheer sumptuousness of Flanders's book leaves the reader wanting still more., "Engrossing...Flanders excels at following the trends in detection and how this was reflected in writing." -Sunday Times (London), Judith Flanders's wonderful, sometimes appalling The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Reveled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime, is a guidebook to notably grisly true-life tales... [Flanders] shines in her readings of literary novels containing criminal and detective elements, such as Oliver Twist, Mary Barton and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but can be sharp and very funny about the vagaries of melodramatic and sensational plotting. Holmes once chided Watson, 'You see but you don't observe.' Ms. Flanders does both. This is an enticing book for any reader who, like the genteel lady in Emily Eden's The Semi-Detached House (1859), admits: 'There is such a grand murder in the paper . . . a whole family poisoned . . . it is very shocking, but I like to hear about it.', "Superb… Flanders's convincing and smart synthesis of the evolution of an official police force, fictional detectives, and real-life cause célèbres will appeal to devotees of true crime and detective fiction alike." Publishers Weekly , starred review "Engrossing…Flanders excels at following the trends in detection and how this was reflected in writing." --Sunday Times (London) "Riveting and meticulous…Flanders balances judicious facts with lively story-telling…the research behind this book is phenomenal…THE INVENTION OF MUDER is what great non-fiction should be; as erudite as it is entertaining, as gripping as fiction despite being "stranger than fiction.''" --Scotland on Sunday "Compelling…remarkable…in this intelligent and comprehensive compendium of murder, she has left no gravestone unturned." --Sunday Telegraph (UK) "Want to be appalled by a book? Then try this one…In more than 400 blood-soaked pages Judith Flanders lovingly traces the progression of notorious Victorian murders and the public's taste for them…with her expert knowledge and guidance we can shudder at the violence or the cold-calculation of murderers…excellent, well-written and hugely well-informed." --Daily Mail (UK) "This is so much more than a compendium of famous crimes…Flanders's knowledge of the period is both wide and extraordinarily deep. She writes incisively, and often with dark wit. Best of all, she had a wonderful ability to make connections and to show us familiar sights from unexpected angles…in this unrelievedly excellent book." --Independent (UK) "Judith Flanders displays a profound understanding of the Victorian age, encyclopedic knowledge of crime and criminals, and the popular reactions towards both. Further, she presents it with a sly, wry humor that is a perfect complement to the subject. Dare I say it would be a crime not to read this book?" Donna Leon "An entertaining excursion into the Victorians' taste for murder…The cast is full of swindlers and forgers and other doubtful characters." The Telegraph "Flanders has written a book rather like one of the great, rambling Victorian novels that she discusses, though most readers will find her work a lot easier, and a lot more fun… the sheer sumptuousness of Flanders's book leaves the reader wanting still more." BBC History Magazine "Flanders's book is more than a catalog of crimes…it builds into an alternative history of the Victorian age, its narrow, purposeful focus providing a means of seeing, from an oblique perspective, terrain which might previously have seemed familiar." Times Literary Supplement "Judith Flanders has produced a compelling study of how crime, and crime prevention, emerged as a popular obsession in 19th century Britain, and came to dominate its literature…mesmerizing." Globe and Mail "Part social history, part literary history, and part penny-blood itself. In the fine tradition of its subject it both has its cake and eats it. Yum. Strychnine." Spectator "Flanders brings to her writing a vivid storyteller's and nicely understated gallows humor…More important though, and far more impressive, is her tenacity in stripping away the gaudy layers of folktale and legend around the period's most notorious murders and revealing how often these inventions obscured lives of heartbreaking ordinariness." Daily Telegraph "Plenty of gruesome detail, but also a dry humor…a valuable and well-researched account of Victorian society in Britain and its growing fascination with the ultimate crime…All human death is here." The Irish Times "A book jam-packed with fascinating details, not only about the Victorian attitude to murder, but much else besides." Mail on Sunday "A penetrating study of the way in which murder can take hold of the creative imagination." Independent on Sunday, Engrossing...Flanders excels at following the trends in detection and how this was reflected in writing.
Dewey Edition
22
TitleLeading
The
Dewey Decimal
364.1523094109034
Table Of Content
1 Imagining Murder 2 Trial by Newspaper 3 Entertaining Murder 4 Policing Murder 5 Panic 6 Middle-Class Poisoners 7 Science, Technology and the Law 8 Violence 9 Modernity
Synopsis
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Wonderful... [Flanders] shines in her readings of literary novels containing criminal and detective elements, such as Oliver Twist, Mary Barton and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but can be sharp and very funny about the vagaries of melodramatic and sensational plotting." - Wall Street Journal In this fascinating exploration of murder in the nineteenth century, Judith Flanders examines some of the most gripping cases that captivated the Victorians and gave rise to the first detective fiction Murder in Britain in the nineteenth century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, transformed into novels, into broadsides and ballads, into theatre and melodrama and opera--even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts. Detective fiction and England's new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other--the pioneers of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell. In this fascinating book, Judith Flanders retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder--both famous and obscure--from the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper to the tragedies of the murdered Marr family in London's East End; Burke and Hare and their bodysnatching business in Edinburgh; and Greenacre, who transported his dismembered fiancée around town by omnibus. With an irresistible cast of swindlers, forgers, and poisoners, the mad, the bad and the dangerous to know, The Invention of Murder is both a gripping tale of crime and punishment, and history at its most readable., THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Wonderful... Flanders] shines in her readings of literary novels containing criminal and detective elements, such as Oliver Twist, Mary Barton and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but can be sharp and very funny about the vagaries of melodramatic and sensational plotting." - Wall Street Journal In this fascinating exploration of murder in the nineteenth century, Judith Flanders examines some of the most gripping cases that captivated the Victorians and gave rise to the first detective fiction Murder in Britain in the nineteenth century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, transformed into novels, into broadsides and ballads, into theatre and melodrama and opera--even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts. Detective fiction and England's new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other--the pioneers of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell. In this fascinating book, Judith Flanders retells the gruesome stories of many different types of murder--both famous and obscure--from the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper to the tragedies of the murdered Marr family in London's East End; Burke and Hare and their bodysnatching business in Edinburgh; and Greenacre, who transported his dismembered fianc e around town by omnibus. With an irresistible cast of swindlers, forgers, and poisoners, the mad, the bad and the dangerous to know, The Invention of Murder is both a gripping tale of crime and punishment, and history at its most readable.
LC Classification Number
HV6535.G4F43 2014

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tangotakila

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  • by teddister
    Mar 02, 2022

    Great for history readers and reading accounts of past crimes

    If you want to read about the beginnings of forensic work and murders from history and have interesting stories and not be a instructional timeline then this is your book. Enjoyed reading it and rereading it because the history and stories are intriguing. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical stories that amazingly happened and solved.

    Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: second.sale

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