Con Men And Cutpurses: Scenes from the Hogarthian Underworld - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713993928 ISBN 13: 9780713993929

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2000

Synopsis

A collection of historical writings about 18th-century roguery, criminality and skull-duggery. Lucy Moore's selection features a diverse gallery of criminals ranging from infamous thieves and murderers, whores and highwaymen, pirates and fraudsters. With extracts from popular journalism, such as The Newgate Calender, and biographical accounts, this volume presents the 18th-century criminal underworld in the racy idiomatic language of the time.

About this title

Review:

Apart from a generic "story of a criminal" in the introduction--in which Lucy Moore epitomises a typical rake's progress, with a narrative expertness and sparsely telling detail that suggests she could make a very effective writer of fiction--this book is wholly given over to 18th-century writings, trial transcripts, newspaper accounts, passages from autobiographies and the like. As a means of enhancing the vivid directness of the material this could hardly be bettered. These little histories are extraordinarily more-ish, like boxed chocolates, and the reader wolfs through "murderers", "prostitutes", "thieves", "pirates", "sex offenders" and "highwaymen", emerging at the other end stuffed with extraordinary 18th-century detail and colour. Perhaps the sense of historical verisimilitude this sort of book creates is a little misleading; after all, Moore has chosen her examples for their inherent interest. But many of these tales are extremely involving. Dr Theodore Fabricus, for instance, seems to have beaten his servant Grace Shaw to death. We read the trial documents, where various witnesses assert that they repeatedly heard poor Grace's cries as the doctor beat her; followed by the doctor himself cross-examining in an attempt to prove that she died of an infected boil, or "imposthume", in her ear. Its riveting, in a grisly way; as grisly as is the application of justice (the account ends laconically: "the jury found him guilty of manslaughter. Burnt in the hand"). Other stories cry out to be dealt with at greater length. Lord Ferrars, for instance, was a man so violent his wife procured legal separation, and he "once kicked a servant so hard in the groin that he was unable to retain urine for many years after." Why? "Because the servant would not swear that a delivery-boy had not delivered bad oysters to Ferrars on purpose." Ferrars is in the book because he told his steward to kneel down and then shot him in the head. He then called a doctor, saying "I intended to have shot him dead but since he is still alive you must do what you can for him." The steward died, and Ferrars went to the gallows. The Newgate Calender reported his cross-examination at trial as illustrative of his sanity, "of which," they said, "some doubt had been entertained," which seems to be putting it mildly. The book is perfect for reading in small spurts, little spotlights cast into the murkiness of 18th-century England. --Adam Roberts

Synopsis:

This text is a collection of historical accounts of 18th-century roguery, criminality and skull-duggery. It features a diverse gallery of criminals, ranging from infamous thieves and murderers, whores and highway men, pirates and fraudsters. With extracts from popular journalism and biographical accounts, this volume presents the 18th-century criminal underworld in the idiomatic language of the time.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0713993928
• ISBN 13: 9780713993929
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Moore Lucy