Publisher Description
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. The Art of the English Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime—and a riveting investigation into the English criminal soul.
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“Anne Flosnik delivers this
excellent overview at a distance, standing slightly apart from the sensational
crimes she’s recounting. Her dispassionate narration focuses on the Brits’
morbid preoccupation with trials and public executions without exaggerating the
melodrama inherent in the theatrical details. An able guide, Flosnik navigates
the years from 1800-1946 via gory newspaper items, garish ‘penny dreadfuls’
based on real crimes, and the rise of true-crime journalism. As a bloodthirsty
English public clamored for even more, a new genre, mystery/detective fiction,
offered opportunities for masters such as Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie,
Dorothy L. Sayers, and Arthur Conan Doyle.”—
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