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The Invention of Murder

How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime

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The Invention of Murder

By: Judith Flanders
Narrated by: Janice McKenzie
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About this listen

A deeply engaging and completely original book about nineteenth-century Britain’s fascination with good quality murder.

Murder in nineteenth-century Britain was ubiquitous – not necessarily in quantity but in quality. This was the era of penny-bloods, early crime fiction and melodramas for the masses. This was a time when murder and entertainment were firmly entwined.

In this meticulously researched and compelling book, Judith Flanders, author of Consuming Passions, takes us back in time to explore some of the most gripping, gruesome and mind-boggling murders of the nineteenth-century. Covering the crimes (and myths) of Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, as well as the lesser known but equally shocking acts of Burke and Hare, and Thurtell and Hunt, Flanders looks at how murder was regarded by the wider British population – and how it became a form of popular entertainment.

Filled to the brim with rich source material – ranging from studies of plays, novels and contemporary newspaper articles, A Social History of Murder brings to life a neglected dimension of British social history in a completely new and exciting way.

©2011 Judith Flanders (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers Limited 19th Century Modern Murder True Crime

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All stars
Most relevant  
This book looks at the role of the murder and how it influenced a society, from the popularisation of newspapers to the roles of melodrama. Excellent narrator.

Fascinating account of crime

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I read this book beforehand and thoroughly enjoyed it. I looked forward to listening... This is the second and last book I will download that is narrated by Anna Bentinck. Her narration is rather insipid at the best of times but it becomes especially unbearable when dialogue is involved. She appears to believe that she is a master of accents and voices; she is not. Her forays into regionality are at best unnecessary, mostly distracting, sometimes toe-curling. I'm glad I had read it first...

Good story, shame about delivery

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A thoroughly enjoyable and informative read. A must read for anyone interested in Victorian crimes

Wonderful

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Really good listen, very interesting subject matter, good pace, clear narration which is sadly marred by shoddy sound mixing leaving the reader's breathing as loud as her voice so very obvious and sometimes off putting. Still highly recommended

Great listen

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An interesting look at the Victorian period and the murders of the day. The author manages to get the murders across with out resorting to shock tactics and the links to the everyday world of the time make it more enjoyable.

The conclusion seems a bit rushed at the end but we can't have everything.

Good but not gruesome

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This is a well written documentary of murders from a bygone age. Stories of how murderers were found pre forensic science. How murderers even if they had committed suicide were dealt with. Fascinating insight of how people reacted to crime.

Murder Victorian Style

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With its subtitle – ‘How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime’, this book traces the British public’s interest in murder as a sort of national entertainment. Though the book’s title clearly suggests we’re talking about the Victorian period (1837-1901), Ms Flanders begins her romp through the gory annals of homicide in 1811, with the Ratcliffe Highway killings, where two families were slaughtered (supposedly) by one John Williams.

Illustrating her research with innumerable murders, the author charts the development of the crime through the media of the time – newspapers, broadsheets, on stage and even in ceramic likenesses of the killers, showing how murderers, and the police officers who caught them, caught the imagination of the whole country.

Being a bit of a connoisseur of Victorian crime, I bought both the audio and paperback versions of this book. I was familiar with many of the cases, and as well as the usual suspects (Burke and Hare, The Mannings, William Corder et al) there were several I hadn’t come across before. Flanders also explores how police investigations changed over the period and the ways in which newspapers and journalists contributed to the guilt (or innocence) of the accused.

The author’s meticulous research shows on every page. Many murders prompted what might be termed fanfiction, and Victorian novelists began to copy the plots of certain killers or created their own detective heroes whose exploits often mirrored that of their real-life counterparts. My only criticism of the book would be that some examples of these dragged on a little too long, with too many accounts of poems, songs and theatre scripts that didn’t add much to the book as a whole. Also, I thought the inclusion of Jack the Ripper (although clearly carried out by a Victorian murderer) didn’t bring anything new to the table and a mere mention in passing would have sufficed.

As a social history of murder and its effects on the British public, this is an exciting and enthralling addition to the true-crime library.

An enthralling social history of murder

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There's a wealth of background histrical research behind this book. It's well-read and has touches of levity. It's essentially a string of murder cases, with the "facts" compared/contrasted with contemporary newspaper, theatical and other opinion. The contrast between how things were done "then" and "now is highlighted. I would have welcomed some occasional editing and a little more overview to provide a chronological context for the "set piece" cases. That said, this is a book that will provide fresh material and insights for both the historian and the literary scholar.

How we once lived

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This is a competently read version of the bestselling book. It is essentially a string of tales recounting murders and their treatment in the media during the Victorian era, some familiar (Murder in the Red Barn, Jack the Ripper).

Its strength lies in it's episodic nature allowing the listener to dip in and out without losing the thread.

Murder Tales

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Great book, very well researched and comprehensive, a lot of food for thought. Shame about the narrator, not a good choice.

very comprehensive

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