The Art of alibi : English law courts and the novel / Jonathan H. Grossman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grossman, Jonathan H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Legal stories, English--History and criticism.

Legal stories, English.

English fiction--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Courts in literature.

Law and literature.

Law in literature.

Literary form.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Weaving examinations of novels such as William Godwin's Caleb Williams, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, along with a reading of the new Royal Courts of Justice, Grossman charts the exciting changes occurring within the novel, especially crime fiction, that preceded and led to the invention of the detective mystery in the 1840s.

Contents:

Introduction

1. From scaffold to law court, from criminal broadsheet and biography to newspaper and novel

2. Caleb williams and the novel's forensic form

3. Mary Shelley's legal frankenstein

4. Victorian courthouse structures, the Pickwick papers

5. Mary Barton's tell-tale evidence

6. The Newgate novel and the advent of detective fiction

Conclusion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-196) and index.

ISBN:

0-8018-7787-3

OCLC:

70752763