A review by ultimatecryptid
The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by Judith Flanders
informative
slow-paced
3.75
Short version:
Keeping in mind this is not a subject I have extreme interest in, I found this book fairly enjoyable—although at times dense and unorginized.
Long Version:
Flanders explains the history of the police force and their transition from punitive to 'preventative' measures, and describes that their focus of criminality has always been on the poor and working-class, and rarely searched, accused, or punished those of middle-class or higher.
The repetitive nature of the crimes and their reportings (both the contemporary newspaper quotations and Flanders' own summarization) did hammer hone the procedural nature of 'justice', which became almost story-like in court. However, that same repetition, with a lack of organization on Flanders part, made it difficult to tell when one tale ended and another began, and gave the book an almost drone-like quality.
The overlaps between "real" reporting, melodrama, sensation- and detective-novels are notable and interesting, and the understanding that both real crimes were used as a kind of advertising for the mediums above is well-documented.
The best parts, in my opinions, are where Flanders brings to light the many, many ways people have exchanged stories of murder in truth and fiction to the same effect: as spectacle for those uninvolved.
Keeping in mind this is not a subject I have extreme interest in, I found this book fairly enjoyable—although at times dense and unorginized.
Long Version:
Flanders explains the history of the police force and their transition from punitive to 'preventative' measures, and describes that their focus of criminality has always been on the poor and working-class, and rarely searched, accused, or punished those of middle-class or higher.
The repetitive nature of the crimes and their reportings (both the contemporary newspaper quotations and Flanders' own summarization) did hammer hone the procedural nature of 'justice', which became almost story-like in court. However, that same repetition, with a lack of organization on Flanders part, made it difficult to tell when one tale ended and another began, and gave the book an almost drone-like quality.
The overlaps between "real" reporting, melodrama, sensation- and detective-novels are notable and interesting, and the understanding that both real crimes were used as a kind of advertising for the mediums above is well-documented.
The best parts, in my opinions, are where Flanders brings to light the many, many ways people have exchanged stories of murder in truth and fiction to the same effect: as spectacle for those uninvolved.