Nineteenth-century female poisoners : three English women who used arsenic to kill / Victoria M. Nagy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nagy, Victoria M., 1983- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women poisoners--Great Britain--Case studies.

Women poisoners.

Murder--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Murder.

History.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

x, 224 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note:

Introduction; Gender and Change in Mid-Nineteenth Century England1. Crime in Nineteenth-Century England: Decline, Causes and Concerns2. Broadening the Scope: Moving Beyond Simple Sources3. Poisoning Crimes in the United Kingdom: 1839-18514. The Archetypical Poisoning Woman: Sarah Chesham's Cases5. Death Clubs, Secret Poisonings and an Execution: The Case of Mary May6. Fallen Woman or Bad Witnesses? The Case of Hannah SouthgateConclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781137359292

1137359293

OCLC:

905065334

Publisher Number:

99962392711