Violent Women and Sensation Fiction

This book explores ideas of violent femininity across generic and disciplinary boundaries during the nineteenth century. It aims to highlight how medical, legal and literary narratives shared notions of the volatile nature of women. Mangham traces intersections between notorious legal trials, theories of female insanity, and sensation novels.

'...a fascinating exploration of Victorian popular fiction, which offers new and sometimes unexpected analyses of sensation novels. His close readings of the novels from a historical perspective through contemporaneous medical essays and criminal laws are one of the many strengths of this very accessible study which will undoubtedly be of interest to many Victorianists.' - Laurence Talairach-Vielmas, Oscholas.com

'Mangham's meticulously researched, neatly organized and carefully argued thesis represents the most stimulating contribution to sensation fiction studies to have appeared for quite some time.' - Graham Law, Wilkie Collins Society Journal

'...the strength and originality of Mangham's study lies in his successful use of an inter-disciplinary approach whilst dealing with a diverse range of intellectual areas of inquiry.' - Ian Miller, Medical History

Autorentext
ANDREW MANGHAM is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Reading, UK. He is the editor of Wilkie Collins: Interdisciplinary Essays (2007).

Inhalt
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Smouldering Fires: Legal, Medical and Journalistic Profiles of the Violent Woman 'The Terrible Chemistry of Nature': Literary Representations of the Road Murder 'Frail Erections': Male Ambition and the Exploitation of Violent Women in the Fiction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon 'Nest-Building Apes': Female Follies and Bourgeois Culture in the Novels of Mrs Henry Wood Hidden Shadows: Dangerous Women and Obscure Diseases in the Novels of Wilkie Collins Conclusion Bibliography Index