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Palgrave Macmillan

Violent Women and Sensation Fiction

Crime, Medicine and Victorian Popular Culture

  • Book
  • © 2007

Overview

Authors:
  1. Andrew Mangham

    1. School of English and American Literature, University of Reading, UK

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    • Andrew Mangham
    Pages 1-6

  3. Explosive Materials: Legal, Medical, and Journalistic Profiles of the Violent Woman

    • Andrew Mangham
    Pages 7-48

  4. ‘The Terrible Chemistry of Nature’: The Road Murder and Popular Fiction

    • Andrew Mangham
    Pages 49-86

  5. ‘Frail Erections’: Exploiting Violent Women in the Work of Mary Elizabeth Braddon

    • Andrew Mangham
    Pages 87-125

  6. ‘Nest-Building Apes’: Female Follies and Bourgeois Culture in the Novels of Mrs Henry Wood

    • Andrew Mangham
    Pages 126-168

  7. Hidden Shadows: Dangerous Women and Obscure Diseases in the Novels of Wilkie Collins

    • Andrew Mangham
    Pages 169-208

  8. Conclusion

    • Andrew Mangham
    Pages 209-211

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 212-247
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Reviews

'...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

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of English and American Literature, University of Reading, UK

    Andrew Mangham

About the author

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

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