Invention Of Murder: How Victorians Revelled In Death And Detection

NAME OF BOOK OR SOURCE & FULL PUBLISH REFERENCE:
TITLE: The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
AUTHOR: Judith Flanders
PUBLISHER: Thomas Dunne Books-St. Martin’s Press
PUBLISHING CITY: New York
EDITION: First Edition
DATE: July 23, 2013
ISBN-10: 1250024870 Q I. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS HISTORICAL AREA AND THIS BOOK? At the library, I was recommended Judith Flander 's The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime because it combines to of my interests-Victorian Era and Criminology. The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime is set in Victorian England,Victorian Era during
the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). During the Victorian Era, many scientific and economic advancements were made, which are very interesting to me. The same year of Queen Victoria’s coronation, Cook and Wheatstone invented the electric telegraph, which led to better communication. In 1840, the Penny Black, the first postage stamp was issued. In 1851, London hosted the Great Exhibition, a trade fair, leading to the Industrial Revolution. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of the Species by Natural Selection about the theory of evolution. Prior to Queen Victoria’s reign, in 1829, George and Robert Stephenson built the first steam engine and by 1863, the world’s first underground railway was built in London. In 1867, Joseph Lister discovered antiseptics, which led to better healthcare. Later in 1878, Joseph Swan invents a light bulb. Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867 in England extended the right to vote to the middle class, and by 1884, all men over 21 could vote. As a result, Victorian era England raised its standard of living, public health, mortality rate, and safety. Victorian England influenced many other countries, in not only fashion and arts, but science, technology, healthcare, travel, and economy as well. These influential ideas of Victorian Era are still discussed today. The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime is set in Victorian England, but although, it is set it Victorian England that is not necessarily why I chose this book. I am always interested in criminology. In fact, the first adult book I read was Robert Ludlum’s The Matlock Papers. I grew up reading John Grisham, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allen Poe, etc. novels instead of children’s books. I watched Law & Order, CSI, Sherlock Holmes, and many other crime shows instead of watching children’s TV. Criminology, the study of crime, specifically Medical Examination, was my first choice of careers, until I realized science and math were not my passion, but history and teaching was. Today, I am known for my crime minutia, such as prior to Queen Victoria’s reign, in 1829, Sir Robert Peel founded the English metropolitan police, but Queen Victoria expanded the police force. Q II. What 4 historical/cultural themes/patterns that reflect the norms/directions of the period - do you see coming out of the book? Either stated or surmised by you. Identify them and expand on them with YOUR OWN THINKING. (Not the author 's writing style or "stuff" that has no historical significance. The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime., set during the Victorian Era, includes a great division between classes and the literate and illiterate population, as well as, stereotypes of police and criminals in the media-newspapers, theaters, novels, etc. In the Victorian era, there was a division between the literate and the illiterate. Since the 16th century, newspapers were expensive, due to taxation, for the working class, so broadsides and penny-bloods were cheap alternatives. Broadsides could be found in pubs and coffeehouses windows for all to read or have read to them. Broadsides were single sheet that reported (mostly fabricated) the crime, court, trial, confession, and execution. Broadsides declined in 1850’s, but they returned for a short period. Broadsides were replaced by valedictory poems (Flanders 355). For those who could not afford broadsides, penny bloods were available. Police and the middle class condemned penny bloods and believed the led to crime. However, the middle class continued to read government run broadsides. Penny bloods/ penny dreadful were cheap fictions that sold mostly to working class youths. Penny bloods even had female detectives unlike Broadsides. Eventually, penny bloods became popular in middle class society in the late 1880’s. Penny-bloods died out in the late 19thcentury when newspapers and books became cheaper. Basic universal education was not introduced until 1870. For most of the 19th century, those who were literate had access to newspapers, broadsides, penny-bloods, and novels, but those who were illiterate had to rely on people to read to them.

Although, there was a division between the literate and the illiterate, in theater and novels created an even bigger division between the middle and working class. In the Victorian era, there was a division between the middle class and the working class, which was often shown in the arts-theater and novels. Shortly after a murder, a melodrama play, which centered on murder, would be written. Most plays were subject to government oversight: the scripts had to be approved and the actors had to have licenses. Each play had the same costumes and stock characters: the pride of the village-the hero, a villain, a heroine, a comic servant, a rustic, and a heavy (Flanders 32-33). Additionally, the plays had the same stylized speech and themes: last minute reprieve from the gallows, an overheard conversation, a long lost child, and a secret marriage. Middle class people would attend the theater. For those who could not afford the standard theater penny gaffs were available. Other penny gaff plays had highwaymen who were switched at birth, upper class, raised by thieves, and noble, because the bourgeoisie (middle class) steal from the working class. Later after the theatre, a novel would be written. Hannah Maria Jones, a penny blood author and novelist, influenced Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton known for detective fiction. Bulwer-Lytton’s detective fiction included working class criminals being chased by middle class detectives. Throughout the 19th century, there was a division between middle class and the working class, which is often shown in the stereotype of murderers. The division of social class and literacy led to stereotypes of the murderers in the media during the Victorian era. The middle class believed that male foreigners, highwaymen, gangs, doctors, and thugs bludgeoning people to death. The middle class did not believe that women murder, until Eliza Fenning in 1816. Middle class poisoners were given the death penalty, but working class were not. “Throughout the sixty-three years of Victoria’s reign, 26 per cent of convicted murderers were men who killed their wives, while only 1 per cent were women who killed her husbands” (Flanders 166). People, both in the middle class and working class, believed that criminals were like characters in melodrama plays. As Dicken’s Bill Sikes or like the actor, O. Smith, murders are considered to be cold and calculating. However, in reality murderers ranged from William Burke (murdered who killed for money), Eugene Aram (tragic scholar murderer), Dick Turpin (highwayman thief/murderer), Thomas Wainewright (murdered for insurance money), Daniel Good (assassin), and Jack the Ripper (murdered for fun). All of these murderers were romanticized and plays/novels were created in their honor.During most of the 19th century, murderers were stereotyped as cold and calculating men, but those who chased them, the police and detectives were stereotyped. In the Victorian era, the police were stereotyped in the media, as well as the murderer. The Prior to Queen Victoria’s reign, politicians believed that the police was ineffective. The police were privately funded and often corrupt. Rapid urbanization in cities led to the police being ineffective and crime to rise. After the Marr Murders of 1811, people called for change from the size of the police to increasing the size of rewards, and to have the police policed. The next year, 1812, a centralized authority in charge of the police was created and a neighborhood watch was created. In 1829, Sir John Fielding created a register for crimes and potential crimes/criminals. At first people respected the police, but in 1833, people began to distrust the police. After the Cold Bath Field Riot and the resulting trial, the public rioted in the Guy Fawke Riot. Police killed John Peacock Wood, but the police were able to sit in the trial and tailor their evidence to match the defenses claims; the police were never convicted. Then Thomas Aston was murdered and the murders claimed the police paid them kill him in order to stop the Guy Fawke Riots. The media mocked the police calling them “uncooked lobsters, because the police (runners and detectives) wore civilian clothes with a sash or a protective blue uniform (police) with a baton and a rattle. Neither the police or runners were respected, but the detectives were the least respected. Detectives were considered to be a criminal, because of Eugene Vidocq’s Memoirs in 1812 (Flanders 14). It was not until the assassin, Daniel Good, attempted to kill Queen Victoria, that the Detective Department (Scotland Yard) was created in 1842. Within a decade, the police’s reputation had changed. In 1848, James B. Rush, was caught for attempted murder and Mr. Manning, was caught for murder by the well-organized police in quick and efficient manner; both were hanged. In 1849, The Progress of Crime by Robert Huish police and detectives became respectable. People again believed that the police were honorable, highly regarded, and professional. Q III. Now, pick any historical/cultural situation or condition that impacted you in the book, put yourself there and in it at that time (in that period of time) , and explain how you feel, what you would have done. ALERT: DO NOT SAY, "If I were there, I would.....” BE THERE. If you do not become that person, I will start my grading at a "C" grade, regardless of how well you do on the rest of the project. I come from an upper middle class family. My dad is a hospital administrator (49), my mom (46) is a teacher, my brother (18) is a university student-statistician, and my sister (14) is a high school student. I am a 26-year-old, married, and childless woman with a college education, who works as a tutor, while my husband (25) is a Navy Officer and we are in the middle class. I would have a very different experience in Victorian Era England from today in the modern US. In Victorian England, my mom would be a governess and my father, a hospital administrator, but it is likely they would be dead. My younger brother, 18, would inherit the family fortune and be away at college studying math, and my little sister, 14, would be a governess until married. Most people lived to be between ages 30-45 in Victorian England, and my parents are nearing 50 (Woods). My dad would be paid, as a hospital administrator, would make about £800 per year or £859,300 (1,452,217$) today (Roth/Officer). My family would be middle class, and my father and my husband would still have college degrees, but my mom and I would not. College was only for wealthy men. My husband and I would be a governess and a Navy officer. My husband would be paid, as a Lieutenant, on average of £ 9 and 4 shillings a month or about £110 and 8 shillings per year or £118,600 (200,434$) today (Ives/Officer). My mother and I would be paid an average of £20 to £45 per year or between £21,480- £48,340 (36,301$-81,695$) today, until we were married (PBS/Officer). As a woman, I would not be childless; but I would be considered to be an older woman, as 30-45 is the average lifespan. A Victorian woman had an average of five children, so I would have many children (Woods).
As a middle class married woman, I would engage in murder sightseeing.
Middle class children would play with murderer dolls or puppet shows and visit Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors. Murder sightseeing was popular entertainment for the middle class to poor. Newspapers, broadsides, anatomy theatres, hospitals, penny bloods, theatres, penny gaffs, playwrights, novelists, bookstores, pubs, coffeehouses, dog acts, etc. all made money from murder watching. People would visit the site of the murder, see the body where the crime occurred, receive handbills offering rewards, and watch the police investigate (Flanders 3). During the trial, the public could see the trial and watch the execution, by hanging. The middle class believed that execution day was the most festive. After an execution, the body of the murderer was shown to the public and doctors would publicly perform an autopsy. After the murder, people would create ballads, plays, broadsides, newspaper articles, comedies, operas, art, drawings, waxworks, and pictures, which all centered on murder. This was the life of the average middle class person in The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern
Crime. Q IV. Finally, what one theme/pattern that you see repeating itself through time to today 's world, or what major change do you see. Do not talk about how good/bad the book was. Do not write a book review. The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime., set during the Victorian Era, includes the fact that murder is a part of society, just as it is today. The main idea of The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime is that in Victorian England people turned to the arts (theatre, books, etc.), but needed a better police system, because there was a lack of solutions to murder during the Victorian Era. By the 19th century, murder was rare, but people were still interested in it. Fear and murder was a spectacle and an art, but a police force and detectives found a way to match the criminals. According to Judith Flanders, “the cunning of the criminal was matched on stage, on page, by the wisdom of the hunter…Murder was finally, a fine art” (Flanders 466). This major theme is relevant to today. Some of the most popular shows and books are centered on crime. People see murder in art, when listening to music, when watching TV and watching plays. The murder rate is increasing: 0.15 (15 people) out of 100,000 people in the Victorian Era and 2.79 (279 people) out of 100,000 people in the USA in 2008 were convicted of murder (Flanders 1). Like Victorian England, today, murder is not seen as something to fear, but a form of entertainment. People still crowd around murder scenes and there are murder watchers, as well as, create conspiracy theories regarding murder. Although, you can no longer see public autopsies and execution, people still believe murder is an art. Murder is much a part of society as it was in the Victorian Era. Q V. FINALLY - Rename the book with a different title - yours! The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. by Judith Flanders is a good title. The book centers on the press and not the police procedure. During the Victorian Era, people go their news from newspapers, broadsides, penny-bloods, and novels, if they could read, but those who were illiterate had to rely on people to read to them. However, I would rename the book Victorian Press’ Murderous Fascination. Without the press selling murder stories and public murder investigation, most people would not be interested in murder. Murder sightseeing was a moneymaker and popular, so it is no wonder fact was replaced by fiction. The most prominent murder story during the Victorian era, was prior to the Victorian Era, in 1745, during King George II‘s reign. Eugene Aram, a teacher, and Richard Houseman, a linen-weaver, killed Daniel Clark, a shoemaker, in 1745. They stole his money and things and kept them in their houses, but the goods were recovered. Fourteen years later, Daniel Clark’s body was found and both Houseman and Aram were arrested. Richard Houseman as king’s evidence (witness to prosecution) and Mrs. Aram testified against Eugene (today-you could not do this); Eugene Aram had a poor reputation so he could not find any supporting witnesses, so he was found guilty and executed (Flanders 100). Fiction would replace fact from 1794 and on. In 1794, William Goodwin published Caleb Williams based on Eugene Aram, with themes of injustice, self-learning, and social hierarchy. Later in 1828, Thomas Hood wrote, “The Dream of Eugene Aram,” portraying Aram was a tortured man. Then in 1832, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote The Life and Trial of Eugene Aram representing Eugene Aram was a scholar (Flanders 165). Even in Caroline Clives’s 1855 novel, Paul Ferell has an Aram-like killer. Without the press reporting on crime, the local people and authors/playwrights would not be interested in murder. The press exists to sell itself and if people were not interested, the newspaper, broadsides, penny-bloods, and novels would not print it.

Work Cited

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