Victorian Crime, Madness and Sensation

Beginning with Victoria's enthronement and an exploration of sensationalist accounts of attacks on the Queen, and ending with the notorious case of a fin-de-siècle killer, Victorian Crime, Madness, and Sensation throws new light on nineteenth-century attitudes toward crime and 'deviance'. The essays, which draw on both canonical and liminal texts, examine the Victorian fascination with criminal psychology and pathology, engaging with real life cases alongside fictional accounts by writers as diverse as Ainsworth, Stevenson, and Stoker. Among the topics are shifting definitions of criminality and the ways in which discourses surrounding crime, and particularly its representation by journalists and fiction writers, changed during the nineteenth century. Individual essays also consider the literal and social criminalization of particular sex acts, the gendering of degeneration and insanity, and the role of science and technology in solving cases.