Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes by Mary S. Hartman

Victorian Murderesses: A True History of Thirteen Respectable French and English Women Accused of Unspeakable Crimes Reviews

• 
  Cleopatra Pullen

  There is something quite fascinating about women who murder, and judging by the amount of contemporary reporting of the details about the cases featured in this book, nothing much has changed over time. In this book the author has selected an Englishwoman and a Frenchwoman for each chapter based upon the circumstances, rather than the method of their crimes. All the women featured are from the middle-classes and a certain amount of conjecture is used to paint a picture of this class of women from the details of their cases the reasoning of the author being that these women’s lives weren’t documented or studied in the way of the lower classes and so using these cause celebres can give us a glimpse behind the drawing room curtains of their lives. I’m not completely convinced by this argument but for some of the broader details it works, for instance the chapters that touch upon contraceptive gives us an idea of how widespread or acceptable this was in Victorian England for the middle-classes.
  
  The beauty of this book is threefold; the details of the crimes committed the resulting investigation and if appropriate trial, the popular opinion at the time of the guilt or innocence of those accused using contemporary media and lastly the particular social issues that may have led these women to act outside the law and kill another person. Each case presented was interesting and appeared to be well-researched, although one of the downsides of reading this kind of book on the kindle is that following the notes as you go along is very time-consuming so I tended to wait until I’d finished a chapter to catch-up on these. The fact that there were two women per chapter means that the reader does need to concentrate once the initial setting of the scene has happened, as the author switches between the two subjects to compare and contrast the difference between the two societies in a number of different spheres, including popular opinion and expectations.
  
  The author states in the preface:
  
  
  These accused daughters, wives and mothers have little to teach any would-be twentieth-century practitioner about the art of murder; nearly all of them bungled badly in the ac, and those who got away with it relied upon methods that required special circumstances and relations between the sexes which no longer obtain.
  
  And that is precisely what makes this study so interesting, women can no longer act coy in the witness box, but they could, and were expected to, in Victorian England and so many of the more salacious details are hinted at rather than baldly stated both at the trial and the resultant reporting.
  
  The cases cover the years 1840-1890’s and the subjects covered are:
  Marie Lafarge and Euphemie Lacoste which covers the use of arsenic in matriomony
  Madeline Smith and Angelina Lemoine who were both between school and marriage when they were accused of killing their lovers
  Celestine Doudet and Constance Kent who were both spinsters when they murdered
  Florence Bravo and Henriette Francey the so called new women who were defying the old order of society
  Gabrielle Fenayrou and Adelaide Bartlett both wives of shopkeepers who were reported to have committed adultery
  Florence Maybrick and Claire Reymond who were allegedly victims of the double standards held at the time.
  
  I found this book both interesting and informative although the language at time is quite dry, this is a study rather than a book for entertainment but one that I will be seeking a physical copy of on my bookshelf to supplement my Victorian crime selection.
  
  This book was originally published back in 1976 but has been re-released in 2014 for a new generation of readers by Dover Publications who were kind enough to give me a copy of this book in return for my honest review.
  
  
  
• 
  OutlawPoet

  Scholarly, But Fascinating
  
  
  When I chose to read this book, I thought I was getting something lightweight - a scandalous, fluffy, and sensationalist book about murderesses. I had my popcorn ready.
  
  But as I started to read, I realized that this is a serious and scholarly study of a woman's place in Victorian society, how it lead to various murders, and how society's view of women impacted the outcome of various murder investigations. And I still munched my popcorn.
  
  This is an intelligently written and fascinating historical perspective that completely opened my eyes to life as a Victorian woman. The book really isn't about the murders per se, so if you are expecting gruesome details and salacious photos, move on. Instead, you get an in depth and very personal look into the lives of thirteen woman, as well as a perspective, based on their experiences, of life in general at that time.
  
  Yes, there is sex (in some cases a lot of it), poison, and intrigue, but it's bracketed by a serious look at how woman were treated then - and now.
  
  I would have wished for more photos of the woman in question (if they exist) and, yes I admit it, a little more gruesome detail, but this was a fascinating read!
  
• 
  Tintaglia

  Gli aspiranti lettori siano avvisati: sotto la maschera del true crime vittoriano questo saggio è un'approfondita analisi del ruolo della donna nella Francia e nell'Inghilterra del 1800, delle aspettative e pressioni sociali che la riguardavano, dell'immagine a cui doveva rispondere nelle varie fasi della sua esistenza.
  E di come questa immagine e queste aspettative insieme generassero delitti e influenzassero sentenze.
  Accurato e interessante.
• 
  BAM the enigma

  I found this book's layout a bit confusing. Two women per chapter. Their cases were compared. Except the chapters were really long and the print was minuscule and it was easy to twist the two up. The cases themselves were interesting. Only one had I read about in its own book.
• 
  Janice Schulz

  Victorian Murderesses epitomizes everything I look for in a true crime study. Mary Hartman tells the stories of 12 women in England and France accused of murder in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, including their motivations, the crimes they committed, and their court trials. (Curiously the book's subtitle claims 13 women, but I only count 12.) Far from making it a mere sensationalized tale, Hartman delves into the societal influences that she believes had a bearing on the way their lives developed and the decisions that they made. Additionally, she looks at how the public reacted to the crimes and the women who committed them, especially the way other women treated the subject of female murderers based on class, family, values, and norms .  Broken up into six parts, the book examines two women at a time, using some comparative element that ties their crime, their domestic situation, or their influences. Victorian Murderesses is well researched and expertly written. Unlike some true crime authors, Hartman does not attempt to fictionalize the narrative of her subjects, but skillfully uses letters and trial transcripts to bring them to life without making the book read like a simple regurgitation of facts. She also breaks down each crime after describing it and attempts to determine what actually happened based on the evidence, despite the recorded outcome.  I highly recommend this book for true crime enthusiasts and anyone interested in Victorian history.
• 
  Tracy

  Maybe because I had to read it on a tablet (which I don't particularly like), I struggled with this one. I think I would have preferred all the information about each story to be in one section or chapter instead of going back and forth.
• 
  Jennifer deBie

  Fascinating exploration of crimes, murders primarily, committed by "respectable" women of the 19th century. Hartman's accounts do get a little repetitive in that, generally, most of these women murdered because that was their only recourse in a time when women still held very little power in society, but on a whole these deep dives into the circumstances, cultures, and countries where these crimes took place is very, very interesting.
  
  Hartman is an engaging storyteller, and while she does make the odd psychological leap that we just don't have documented evidence for, for the most part her logic reads as sound and her conclusions as likely. Solidly recommend for those of us who love our "murderer of the week" true crime podcasts, and for anyone curious about a woman's place, and her struggles against it, in the mid- and late- 1800s.
• 
  Heath

  So much arsenic.
• 
  Katherine Addison

  This is a good and interesting book, but it's definitely far more Women's Studies than it is True Crime. Hartman pairs 6 sets of French and English women who were tried for murder in the 19th century, and analyzes their crimes in terms of women's rights and expectations around marriage. (I say "around" rather than "in" because 2 of the women, Constance Kent and Celestine Doudet, were unmarried.) She's interested, as she says, in using these causes celebres to illuminate the lives of ordinary bourgeois women, rather than having any particular interest in the crimes themselves.
  
  So her interpretations and analyses of the women's crimes are about as you'd expect, heavy on the abstract and light on the forensic follow-through. I mean, it's not her fault that Kate Summerscale came along and wrote The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, but it's still true that that book makes Hartman's analysis of the murder of Francis Savile Kent look particularly shoddy. Given my own interests, I found the book a little disappointing, but it did introduce me to a number of French murderesses whom I had not known about.
• 
  Devann

  Really enjoyed this and found it to be very informative. I think the author did a good job of examining the murders in a historical and social context where she explored women's limited means at the time which seemed to drive several of them to become murderers in the pursuit of having more control over their lives without going as far as to excuse their actions, which I've definitely seen in other books before.
  
  Also definitely a lot heavier than I was expecting with regards to women's lack of rights at the time so just be aware of that going in. A lot of discussion of martial rape throughout and in the chapter that talks about masturbation [I think it's chapter 3] there are a few mentions of genital mutilation as well, although the book is written in such a way that it switches back and forth between two women with every chapter so I can't really say to just skip that particular murder since you would have to skip the whole chapter really.
• 
  Donna Davis

  Note the change.
  
  My review below, a three star review, stands as written.
  
  However, my teenager, a high school senior, grabbed this book the instant I set it down, and proclaims it to be "...even better than I thought!" She is using it to acquire extra credit in world history class, and speaks about the various murderesses as if they were family members. This one, she thinks was vindicated; that one, she has NO sympathy for.
  
  So from our household, the average is now four stars; three from me, and five from Emiko.
  
  "True crime" is a big house with a whole lot of rooms. Some true crime books are deliciously prurient; others are as dusty as the top of a ten foot tall bookcase. In this case, the title ("unspeakable") and the jacket artist lead the reader to believe we are really going to get down and dish the dirt, and what is more...it's all true!
  
  Instead, what we have here is a very well-written, well-documented, extremely scholarly if surprisingly dry bit of research, maybe the author's advanced degree work. The collision between the teaser and the product are somewhat jarring. This was a First Read sent me free through the Goodreads program and the publisher. I would have abandoned it more readily had I not felt a duty to get through it.
  
  What would have fit the bill without ruining the author's hard work is a good piece of juicy narrative nonfiction. Put in the documentation, but pick up the pace! As is, the book is sometimes a feminist treatise that all but blames Victorian society's social contract for slut-shaming as an understandable excuse for murder in the case of unsuitable, unmarriable mates of the lower classes (sorry, no sympathy here), or a self-defensive maneuver against constant verbal abuse, without the loss of a high standard of living that came with the ornery groom. A baby born out of wedlock gets snuffed when an abortion can't be obtained.
  
  At other times, the pace quickens a bit, as if the author is about to get excited and take us along with her, but then her dispassionate researcher's mind grabs hold of her--stop it right now, you're getting worked up!--and we go back to the librarian's hushed monotone.
  
  The font, while suitably Victorian, is really tiny and hard on the eyes.
  
  It may be that I am being unfair to Hartman; she has done a good deal of work here, and the fault may lie with Dover or whoever is publishing and promoting her work. All I know is that I expected this to be a fun read, and it wasn't. I kept pushing it away in favor of other reading, as if postponing the book might make me like it better once I returned to it.
  
  A strong, scholarly effort that should have been marketed as such. Not a Halloween read.
• 
  A.L. Butcher

  3.5 stars
  
  This is not a bad book, but it's not particularly good either - at least structurwise
  
  The cases included in this text are:
  - Marie Lafarge and Euphemie Lacoste;
  - Madeleine Smith and Angelina  Lemoine;
  - Celestine Doudet and Constance Kent;
  - Florence Bravo and Henriette Francy;
  - Gabrielle Fenayrou and Adelaide Bartlett;
  - Florence Maybrick and Claire Reymond.
  
  Good points: 
  
  The French cases were largely unknown to me and that aspect was interesting. The comparisons between French and English middle-class society and the position of women were fairly well discussed. 
  There was a mix of cases, although all were 'respectable' women from the time. What was expected of middle-class women, and her own expectations - marriage, children and running the household - were discussed at length.  Many had arranged marriages - often to men much older, or totally unsuitable. Divorce was not a viable option, especially as the father would have maintained control of any children, and the money. Thus most of this women were stuck in relationships, not of their choosing (with the exception of Madeleine Smith - who was in a relationship with a man below her station and disapproved of by her family). 
  Although the cases were discussed fairly sympathetically there was a lot of the authors own views on whether the particular murderess was guilty of the crime she committed. Not all were, and those who were found guilty may not have been. At least one was judged on her moral crimes (adultery) as much as the actual murder.
  The author had done her research and it showed. The social comparisons were good and I think the most interesting aspect was the emerging position of women in both France and England during the 19th century.  There was good focus on the societal aspects of what may have caused these women to take, or consider taking, the ultimate solution to their woes.
  Bad points:
  
  The book jumped around a lot. All the time. It became hard to follow and sometimes wasn't clear which case was being discussed. References to other cases made things more confusing.
  The accounts were long and meandered. They became stories in their own right. Why is this bad? For a book that is meant to be a non-fic there was too much of the 'newspaper' style telling. Give me the facts - if I want a fiction on the subject I'll read historical fic about the cases. 
  There were quite a few formatting issues. 
  I just couldn't really get into the long, often dry accounts of the crimes. It's a shame because the sociological side of the book was interesting for the most part. If the book had been more structured then the rating would have been higher.
  
  
• 
  Granny

  My copy has the cool cover from 1978
  https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.c... (sorry it's a little raggedy).
  
  This book is far better than average, devoting a considerable amount of time to drawing a picture of the time and the culture within which these women lived. Then the author delves into the character of the women, analyzing each individually, based on their letters and testimony of those around them, and other first sources.
  
  Each chapter takes two women in similar circumstances, comparing and contrasting them, and eventually giving her best insight as to whether or not each one is guilty.
  
  This is a fascinating book, well worth reading.
• 
  Andréa

  The subject matter is quite interesting, but it's addressed in a much more scholarly, academic way than I was expecting. Each chapter contrasts two similar murderesses, switching back and forth between their stories, which makes it hard to keep the individual stories straight. The introduction and conclusion completely summarize the cases studied, much the way a collegiate thesis or dissertation would, and refer to the text as "this study". All in all, it's an intriguing book, but definitely not a quick or easy read.
  
  Note: I received a digital galley of this book through NetGalley.
• 
  H.L. Stephens

  I think my great mistake with this book was having read other books that had a more extensive history of each woman and the crime(s) she was accused of committing. There seemed to be more conjecture than detail in this book and I like the facts more than speculation, especially when each segment is so abbreviated. All in all, it is a good starting place for the novice who is curious about Victorian crimes committed by women. I would not recommend however stopping here.
• 
  Laura

  2.5 stars. This book should have been really interesting, but I had a lot of trouble getting into it. I didn't find the author's writing style to be very compelling, which I think was a large part of the problem for me. Also, I thought that including 2 women in each chapter and going back and forth between them got confusing at times - I would have preferred a single chapter for each subject.
  
  Received from NetGalley.
• 
  gremlinkitten

  While I appreciate the extensive research that went into this book, the thorough (and I do mean thorough!) examinations of how these women might have grown up and the expectations of what their lot in life should be, plus other circumstances makes it a real drag to read. If this was for some womens' class, it'd be a good study, but for me, it's going back to the library.
• 
  Susanne

  Really enjoyed this. Social & historical analysis plus probable reconstructions of the crimes.
  Scholarly and entertaining.
  And in at least one of these cases--that I've read about before and the woman is always portrayed as innocent-- thanks to this meticulous research & reconstruction, I'm now convinced she was totally guilty.
• 
  Jenn

  This isn't really a review per se but I needed to say it somewhere.
  
  Spoilers below (as much as you can have spoilers for a 50 year old book about murders that are 2oo years old in some cases)
  
  Hartman argues that Adelaide Bartlett got her husband to drink liquid chloroform by HYPNOTIZING HIM.
  
  I read a lot of true crime and conspiracy stuff, and I've heard some wackadoo theories, but I'm still struggling to digest that idea. It sounds more like the plot of a mystery novel than the possible solution for an actual murder case.
  
  I mean, given the fact that its mostly accepted that you can't "hypnotize" someone to do something they wouldn't consciously do (murder someone, perhaps, or have sex in front of everybody), and the fact that liquid chloroform is corrosive, it seems outlandish at best.
  
  Other than that, decent book investigating how the murders catalogued illustrated the changing social issues of their time.
• 
  Jean Walton

  The only thing about this book that surprised me was the fact that there weren't more of such cases bearing in mind the way women, marriage and sex were viewed at the time. Women rarely got to choose their own husbands. This was usually done by their parents more with a view to money and status than with a view to happiness. Most were married off to much older husbands and were expected to produce healthy children. In those days venereal disease was rife, along with its corresponding mental illness and everyone was on the make including servants who knew a lot about what went on and also knew knowledge was power. Also things like arsenic and chloroform were easily obtained. It really is amazing that even more murders were not committed.
• 
  Amanda

  I expected more of a light read, not necessarily lacking in facts but brief overviews of each woman. That was not what I got. However, I wasn’t at all disappointed by the well-researched, in-depth stories. The more details the better! I am so happy that the publisher granted my “wish” on NetGalley. As a huge fan of historical fiction, I definitely enjoyed these stories that prove that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
• 
  Jennifer Holloway Jones

  I felt that this book provided a good overview of several murderesses from this time period, however it was not really balanced. I felt that Lizzie Borden was very condensed and kind of felt rushed. The last one seemed to really drag on. I think it would be more effective to provide more of a who, what, when, and where interface so it does not feel so choppy. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.
• 
  Ceilidhchaos

  True crime along with great sociological analysis of women's changing roles, class issues, and retrospective forensic analysis. I highly recommend to anyone who likes women's history and critical analysis.
• 
  Tekken

  Iseenesest huvitav teema, aga autori valitud lähenemine ja see lakkamatu hüplemine ühelt tegelaselt teisele rikkus lugemismõnu ära. Viimased sadakond lehekülge kulgesid eriti aeglaselt.
• 
  Lise

  I received a free copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads program.
  
  I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars for this one, but I think I can say 'it was amazing' without meaning 'I absolutely adored it'. The book is both very readable and very information dense. It illuminates both the mid-to-late Victorian period (which it covers) and the 1970's (when it was written).
  
  The premise of the book is that by examining the lives of accused middle class murderesses in the period, through the copious documentation brought about by 'celebrity' cases, we can get a better idea of what life must have been for average women in the same demographic group. It also shows how different life was for English and French women in the same period, and how the expectations and realities they changed over the time in question.
  
  The accused involved include some who were probably innocent, one who was clearly coerced, and a few who were almost certainly guilty. Some were out and out nuts, one was horribly sadistic, some were manipulative, some were ignorant, some were just trying to get by. Most impressively, all of them come across as believable and comprehensible, and yet, the legal establishment which tried them seemed incapable of recognizing them as ordinary humans with ordinary, human motivations. This, more than the murders themselves, makes it a chilling read.
  
  There were some tantalizing snippets here. English women, especially in the early part of the 19th century, lost what freedom they had through marriage, while French women gained it. "Free Love" wasn't at all what I thought, though, apparently, some contemporary officials shared my misapprehension. [The truth makes me want to read more H.G. Wells, which is in and of itself a good thing.] The behavior of women at the trials, and the reaction of their menfolk to it, is fascinating in and of itself.
  
  I'm sure I'll come back to this book, especially if I ever get around to designing that Victorian RPG scenario...
• 
  Kathrin

  I received a free copy of this book.
  
  In "Victorian Murderesses" you are presented with 13 crime cases set in the Victorian era. The book is divided into several chapters dealing different aspects of crimes. In most cases there is an English and French woman and the author pays attention on showing the differences in both countries.
  
  I read quite a lot of crime literature and thus are interested in real crimes and how the public dealt with them. Until now, I haven't read much non fiction books about the era which made it even more interesting for me to learn more about a women's life back then.
  I really liked the fact that the author paid attention to both English and French women. The different topics in the book were well presented although I found some more interesting than others. But this is not necessarily a bad thing as this is just my personal opinion.
  
  The book was quite informative and I enjoyed reading it but there were some passages that were maybe a little too scholarly. The chapters are rather long and sometimes it was quite difficult to focus on the important facts.
  
  Nevertheless, I liked the author's way of presenting the accused's life, their motives and the impact of their social standing. It's not really a light read but if you can handle that much information you'll have a great time reading the book.
  
• 
  Tom Mueller

  Jack Ketchum’s
  The Girl Next Door is a graphic description of Sylvia Likens' 1965 torture/murder by Gertrude Baniszewski in Indiana. Apathy of witnesses who heard ongoing torture, at least 15 involved in torture. is based on this murder.
  After I first read Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door, I followed up by reading a lot of newspaper reports and some non-fiction books including Victorian Murderesses, which I learned of in the bibliography in
  The Basement: A True Story of Violence in an American Family. I have a penchant for reading true crime; constantly amazed, horrified and tormented by the atrocities man is capable of inflicting on another human (or any animal as far as that goes). I sometimes wonder why our higher power has allowed us to continue as a species, assuming there is a HP.
  Nature cannot be cruel, or evil; these distinguishing traits are limited to humans. That creates a conundrum of course; one must ponder if we are in fact a part of nature, or a pure abomination.