Bibliograph

Murder by the book, the sensational chapter in Victorian crime, Claire Harman

Type

Label

Murder by the book, the sensational chapter in Victorian crime, Claire Harman

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

mapsplatesillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Murder by the book

Responsibility statement

Claire Harman

Sub title

the sensational chapter in Victorian crime

Summary

In a spring morning in 1840, on an ultra-respectable Mayfair street, a household of servants awoke to discover that their gentle, unobtrusive master, Lord William Russell, was lying in bed with his throat cut so deeply that the head was almost severed. The whole of London, from monarch to maidservants, was scandalized by the unfolding drama of such a shocking murder, but behind it was another story, a work of fiction. For when the culprit, the twenty-three-year-old French valet, eventually confessed, he claimed his actions were the direct result of reading the bestselling crime novel of the day. This announcement spun a web which entangled the entirety of literary London, from Thackeray to Dickens, and posed the question: can a work of fiction do real harm?

Target audience

adult

Classification