Tales from the Hanging Court (Hodder Arnold Publication)

From everyday customs to violent transgression, Tales from the Hanging Court paints a fascinating and vivid picture of what it was like to live in London 200 years ago, from the dark alleys to the glittering thoroughfares. Drawing on the Old Baily archives from 1674-1834, the authors recreate the real-life and death dramas on which Defoe, Fielding, and Dickens based their novels. They uncover the traditions--and aberrations--that colored daily life in a society where it was easier to witness an execution than to attend the theater.

Tales from the Hanging Court

History

Hitchcock, Tim

Shoemaker, Bob

Europe

Bloomsbury USA

Tales from the Hanging Court draws on published accounts of Old Bailey trials from 1674-1834, a rich seam of social, political and legal history. Through these compelling true stories of theft, murder, rape and blackmail, Hitchcock and Shoemaker capture the early history of the judicial system and the colorful, vibrant and sometimes scandalous world of pre-industrial London. In its heyday the court was a soap opera of intrigue, sensation and murky goings on where authors such as Dickens and Defoe would go for inspiration. Thieves and murderers were often caught by members of the public and prosecutions brought by victims. Hitchcock and Shoemaker chart an increasingly sophisticated society taking crime and punishment away from the anarchy of the London mob to put it into a court where a judge and jury meted out justice. The authors paint a vivid picture of a flourishing city where market capitalism and Enlightenment thinking battled to impose order on the chaotic crime that accompanied Britain's economic miracle.

Bloomsbury Academic

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