Nineteenth-Century Female Poisoners investigates the Essex poisoning trials of 1846 to 1851 where three women were charged with using arsenic to kill children, their husbands and brothers. Using newspapers, archival sources (including petitions and witness depositions), and records from parliamentary debates, the focus is not on whether the women were guilty or innocent, but rather on what English society during this period made of their trials and what stereotypes and stock-stories were used to describe women who used arsenic to kill. All three women were initially presented as 'bad' women but as the book illustrates there was no clear consensus on what exactly constituted bad womanhood.

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About the author

Victoria M. Nagy received her PhD from the Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, Monash University, Australia. Prior to this she was lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Nineteenth-Century Female Poisoners
Book Subtitle: Three English Women Who Used Arsenic to Kill
Authors: Victoria M. Nagy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137359308
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave History Collection, History (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-35929-2Published: 18 February 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-47148-5Published: 01 January 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-35930-8Published: 18 February 2015
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 224
Topics: Social History, Criminology and Criminal Justice, general, Prison and Punishment, Forensic Psychology, History of Britain and Ireland, Modern History

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

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