Violent Women and Sensation Fiction : Crime, Medicine and Victorian Popular Culture

This new study explores the way that stories and images of 'explosive' femininity worked across generic and disciplinary boundaries during the Victorian era. Andrew Mangham explores the era's problematic criminalisation of female behaviour with reference to medical theories on women's psychology, reports of notorious criminal cases, like Constance Kent's and Madeline Smith's, and the popular fictions of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Mrs Henry Wood and Wilkie Collins. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Introduction......Page 12 The body in the kitchen......Page 18 Young women and adolescents: ‘The mad fury of that lovely being......Page 20 Motherhood I: Maternal maniacs......Page 34 Motherhood II: Morbid influences......Page 40 Female old age: Sick fancies......Page 50 ‘The fussy activity about the nightdress of a school girl’......Page 60 Popular fictional representations......Page 74 ‘A tragedy of blood and tears’: Aurora Floyd......Page 75 ‘Smooth as polished crystal’: St. Martin’s Eve......Page 82 ‘Detective fever’: The Moonstone......Page 90 Poking the embers: The hysterical violence of young women......Page 98 Unmotherly glances and sickly sentimentality: Dangerous maternities......Page 114 Uncultivated waste: Post-menopausal women......Page 127 4 ‘Nest-Building Apes’: Female Follies and Bourgeois Culture in the Novels of Mrs Henry Wood......Page 137 A man of two wives/a man of two lives: Divided masculinity and domestic ideology in East Lynne (1862)......Page 140 ‘Looking back’: The mother’s influence in Danesbury House (1860) and Mrs Halliburton’s Troubles (1862)......Page 148 ‘The matrimonial lottery’: Choosing a good wife in Lady Adelaide’s Oath (1867)......Page 154 ‘Evil heritages’: Superstition and morbid heredity in The Shadow of Ashlydyat (1864)......Page 160 A moth in the upturned tumbler: The control and display of passion in Verner’s Pride (1863)......Page 169 5 Hidden Shadows: Dangerous Women and Obscure Diseases in the Novels of Wilkie Collins......Page 180 ‘What could I do?’: The Woman in White (1860)......Page 183 ‘In a glass darkly’: No Name (1862)......Page 193 ‘The shadow of a woman’: Armadale (1866)......Page 207 Conclusion......Page 220 Notes......Page 223 Bibliography......Page 244 Index......Page 253 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. Explores the way ideas of violent femininity worked across generic and disciplinary boundaries during the nineteenth century. This book aims to highlight how medical, legal and literary narratives in particular, shared and exchanged notions relating to the allegedly volatile nature of women