Wow! eBook
Crime & Criminals of Victorian England Illustrated Edition
Author(s): Adrian Gray (Author)
- Publisher: The History Press
- Publication Date: 1 Jan. 2011
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 224 pages
- ISBN-10: 0752452800
- ISBN-13: 9780752452807
Book Description
Dark and foggy Victorian streets, the murderous madman, the arsenic-laced evening meal – we all think we know the realities of Victorian crime. Adrian Gray’s book thrillingly relfects some of this, ranging over classic murders by knife and poison. But it also covers much more, taking the reader into less familar parts of Victorian life, uncovering the wicked, the vengeful, the foolish and the hopeless amongst the criminal world of the nineteenth century. Here you will encounter the women who sold their children, the bankers who stole the money they were supposed to keep safe, smugglers, highwaymen, the first terrorists, ruthless ‘footpads’ and the ‘mesmerists’ who fooled a credulous public, even the Salvationist band that went to gaol. The book takes in the cities, villages, lanes, mills and ships of the period. In the process of telling a host of human tales, the author shows how our laws today have been shaped by what the Victorians considered acceptable – or made illegal.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Select Guide Rating
About the Author
ADRIAN GRAY studied history at Cambridge and has worked in the education sector for almost thirty years. He is author of more than twenty books, including Crime & Criminals of Victorian Kent, Crime & Criminals of Victorian Lincolnshire and Crime & Criminals of Victorian London. He lives in Nottinghamshire.
