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Post by dem bones on Nov 30, 2010 11:44:18 GMT
Leonard De Vries - orrible Murder: Victorian Crime & Passion (Macdonald, London, 1971, BCA 1974) Blurb: A newspaper vendor selling his wares with the gruesome cry "Murder! 'Orrible Murder!" is sure of good business. Operating around 1870 on this sound commercial basis, the Victorian tabloid, The Illustrated Police News, had the largest circulation of any periodical of that time. It fed its avid public on a weekly diet of real-life horrors, calculated to chill the strongest stomach and boost the next issue's sales. (Local events were best, but in a thin week the editors resorted to barbarities in China or natural disasters in America.) Labourers in the factories who could not read or write would pay a boy among them to read aloud from The Illustrated Police News as they worked.
FATAL CASE OF ELEPHANT TEASING, SHOCKING DEATH ON A WELSH MOUNTAIN, WOMAN RAISED FROM THE DEAD, ATTEMPT TO DROWN A SUPPOSED WITCH, DOUBLE MURDER AND SUICIDE and FEARFUL ENCOUNTER WITH A BOA CONSTRICTOR were but a few of the bestselling headlines. Macabre, tragic and sometimes unintentionally hilarious, stories of this kind are as much 'news' today as they were in the nineteenth century. But even the most daring of today's press photographers cannot illustrate such news as graphically and intimately as the Victorian artists, who drew considerably more on their own sense of drama and imagination than on their visits to the scenes of the disasters. The fine wood engravings which appeared in The Illustrated Police News are unique to the period, a period when commercial news reportage was at its most vivid and prolific. These excellent illustrations are lively, melodramatic and, to modern eyes, often grimly funny.
'ORRIBLE MURDER is a collection of articles and pictures directly taken from the pages of The Illustrated Police News , and in style and treatment it faithfully reflects the tastes of the period. On one level it is social history: the seamier side (and often it is pitiful and ;ghastly) of Victorian life. On another, it Illuminates the interests and predilections of he Victorian 'common reader'. And, above all, it reflects unchanging social tastes: whether catered for by thrillers or television, in the cinema or between paper covers, human nature's demand for sensation remains as voracious today as it was a century ago. Here you go, Craig. A compendium of human evil and tragedy, guaranteed to set one's inner de Sade to salivating. Cruelty, murder, madness, impromptu witch trials, domestic disaster, creative suicide, cannibalism, 'pregnant nun punished' thrills, public executions gone spectacularly wrong, umpteen infant fatalities and death by sea monster. Just about every staple of the next centuries sensationalist pulp fiction is here, give or take a sprinkling of Black Magic. Enough to have kept Charles Birkin in material for another twenty paperbacks!
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 30, 2010 13:15:37 GMT
Oh, I want it!  **covet covet covet** |
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Post by lemming13 on Nov 30, 2010 13:47:08 GMT
I share your sinful desire here - especially as my daughter came home from high school chortling over a fatal case of elephant teasing! Seems her teacher used the story to inspire some Victorian-style journalism among them for a project in Communications (which apparently covers any subject not involving maths, physical exercise or pc indoctrination). That teacher is getting the best Christmas present I'm handing out to educators this year - a paperknife of oriental design suitable for use in 'orrible murder. Pity that in these elf and safety days it has to be almost too blunt to slit an envelope, but the thought is there...
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Post by dem bones on Nov 30, 2010 14:55:14 GMT
My, but vault's select band of correct young gentlewomen share a ghoulish streak! have a care, Lady P and Lemmy, lest this happen to you! I absolutely adore this next rotter! A cool century before Hamlyn got in on the act, two of several pioneering 'When Animals Attack!' scenarios. Sharks were extremely popular with the The Illustrated Police News illustrators, particularly when busy devouring women, as were 'Devil Fish'. Later in the book comes a glorious treatment of a hog doing a runner with an infant clamped between its jaws. |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 30, 2010 15:49:02 GMT
Those are so marvellous I've already made slides of them to slip into lectures at appropriate points. Any more would be very gratefully appreciated!
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Post by marksamuels on Nov 30, 2010 15:52:29 GMT
I don't know why, but the way that cat's been drawn cracks me up.
Mark S.
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 30, 2010 16:16:06 GMT
Those are so marvellous I've already made slides of them to slip into lectures at appropriate points. Any more would be very gratefully appreciated! I've put the book on my Amazon wish list and would be very happy to photograph "any more" for you.  |
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 30, 2010 16:43:44 GMT
I don't know why, but the way that cat's been drawn cracks me up. Mark S. Careful about that cat Mark. The vault crumbles in the face of animal cruelty. I have to admit there's something marvelous about these illustrations and the captions though. What on earth is that women doing fighting vultures? The mind boggles. I think there's a sort of sense of 'it was all a bit of a larf' when you look at the illustrations. |
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Post by andydecker on Nov 30, 2010 18:42:43 GMT
Another must have Love the head in the box murder! Curiosity killed the cat and the mistress, eh? A propos cat, you know that a dead cat is a coward´s weapon?  |
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Post by Dr Terror on Nov 30, 2010 19:10:34 GMT
I've put the book on my Amazon wish list and would be very happy to photograph "any more" for you. Photograph or pose for recreations!?
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Post by dem bones on Nov 30, 2010 19:18:30 GMT
Those are so marvellous I've already made slides of them to slip into lectures at appropriate points. Any more would be very gratefully appreciated! Your big-hearted, philanthropic Vault, doing our bit for the advancement of medical science, making this a better world to live in, etc. It would be unfair to scan too many more illustrations - don't want to ruin it for lady p. - so here are some I made earlier (please let us know what you make of it when you land a copy, your magnificence: there are 160 packed pages of this stuff, so you get very good value for money). Not quite in the same vein perhaps, but for me, an ideal companion volume would be Ronald Pearsall's Night's Black Angels: The Forms and Faces of Victorian Cruelty (David McKay Co., 1975). Pearsall (1927 - 2005) is described in his obituary as a "Historian of Victorian sexuality" ( Independent, 17 Oct. 2005) and, despite the seriousness of both his approach and the subject matter, this excellent study doubles as a wildly entertaining introduction to to Victorian vileness in its several guises. According to the Telegraph (24 Oct. 2005): "Pearsall investigated what went on behind the lace curtains and suggested that repressive attitudes created a climate in which the fetishistic, the illicit and the depraved thrived. He examined Ruskin, his erotic nightmares, unconsummated marriage and preoccupation with young girls; Swinburne's predilection for flagellation; the cult of the corset ("tight lacing produced a very close simulacrum of hysteria and could result in certain erotic sensations"); the buccaneering trade in pornography, and the orgies that took place at grand country houses." The anonymous commentator is referring to Pearsall's debut, The Worm in the Bud, which i've never seen, but the description could be applied to Night's Dark Angel's with equal justification. just learned that Pearsall was also responsible for an enticing something entitled Table-rappers: The Victorians and the Occult (Michael Joseph, 1972: History Press, 2004). Will ever a day go by without me adding another title to my bleeding wants list? ah, and if you'll 'scuse me a little nepotism, one of chrissie's to end on!  © the bride of demonik |
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Post by Johnlprobert on Nov 30, 2010 19:29:07 GMT
It's just all too wonderful - a copy has been ordered and is on the way to Probert Towers!
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Nov 30, 2010 19:32:22 GMT
I read this when it came out - Night's Black Angels: The Forms and Faces of Victorian Cruelty. That was one of the reasons I did anthropology. Titles like 'The Sexual Life of Savages and Taboo always did it for me. Sexual customs are utterly fascinating and are a great indication of how a society effects balance.
The pictures would make a good Vault caption competition.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 30, 2010 20:27:18 GMT
I read this when it came out - Night's Black Angels: The Forms and Faces of Victorian Cruelty. That was one of the reasons I did anthropology. Titles like 'The Sexual Life of Savages and Taboo always did it for me. Sexual customs are utterly fascinating and are a great indication of how a society effects balance. Can well understand why Night's Black Angels should have inspired you so, craig. Have never owned a copy, haven't seen one in a long time, but it was a fixture of the local library when they still favoured reading matter over Mr. Bean DVD's and I well, absorbed the thing is about the best way I can put it, made a huge impression on me. It's likely one of the main reasons why, when I got into horror. Began with Hugh Lamb's anthologies of Victorian terror and Haining's The Penny Dreadful: Strange, Horrid And Sensational Tales! (another from the library; later managed to snag a copy in the Fantasy Centre). You can't know how long I've been meaning to post about both books but couldn't think of anything to say! |
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Thana Niveau
Devils Coach Horse
We who walk here walk alone.
Posts: 109
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Post by Thana Niveau on Nov 30, 2010 20:51:43 GMT
It's just all too wonderful - a copy has been ordered and is on the way to Probert Towers!  |
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