Trials of Passion: Crimes Committed in the Name of Love and Madness

Nonfiction, History
Cover of the book Trials of Passion: Crimes Committed in the Name of Love and Madness by Lisa Appignanesi, Pegasus Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Lisa Appignanesi ISBN: 9781605988153
Publisher: Pegasus Books Publication: July 15, 2015
Imprint: Pegasus Books Language: English
Author: Lisa Appignanesi
ISBN: 9781605988153
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Publication: July 15, 2015
Imprint: Pegasus Books
Language: English

Using sensational crimes committed in America, Britain, and France, this dramatic narrative takes madness and passion into the courts and puts these provocative themes on trial.

A journey into the heart of dark passions and the crimes they impel, and their trial by daylight and doctors. When passion is in the picture, what is criminal, what is sane, what is mad or simply bad?

Through court and asylum records, letters and newspaper accounts, this book brings to life some sensational trials between 1870 and 1914, a period when the psychiatric professions were consolidating their hold on our understanding of what is human. Outside fiction, individual emotions and the inner life had rarely been publicly discussed: now, in an increasingly popular press and its courtroom reports, people avidly consumed accounts of transgressive sexuality, savage jealousy and forbidden desires. These stood revealed as aspects not only of those labelled mad, but potentially, of everyone.

With great storytelling flair and a wealth of historical detail, Lisa Appignanesi teases out the vagaries of passion and the clashes between the law and the clinic as they stumble towards a (sometimes reviled) collaboration. Sexual etiquette and class roles, attitudes to love, madness and gender, notions of respectability and honor, insanity and lunacy, all are at play in that vital forum in which public opinion is shaped—the theater of the courtroom.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Using sensational crimes committed in America, Britain, and France, this dramatic narrative takes madness and passion into the courts and puts these provocative themes on trial.

A journey into the heart of dark passions and the crimes they impel, and their trial by daylight and doctors. When passion is in the picture, what is criminal, what is sane, what is mad or simply bad?

Through court and asylum records, letters and newspaper accounts, this book brings to life some sensational trials between 1870 and 1914, a period when the psychiatric professions were consolidating their hold on our understanding of what is human. Outside fiction, individual emotions and the inner life had rarely been publicly discussed: now, in an increasingly popular press and its courtroom reports, people avidly consumed accounts of transgressive sexuality, savage jealousy and forbidden desires. These stood revealed as aspects not only of those labelled mad, but potentially, of everyone.

With great storytelling flair and a wealth of historical detail, Lisa Appignanesi teases out the vagaries of passion and the clashes between the law and the clinic as they stumble towards a (sometimes reviled) collaboration. Sexual etiquette and class roles, attitudes to love, madness and gender, notions of respectability and honor, insanity and lunacy, all are at play in that vital forum in which public opinion is shaped—the theater of the courtroom.

More books from Pegasus Books

Cover of the book The Zoo: The Wild and Wonderful Tale of the Founding of London Zoo: 1826-1851 by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Thieves of Threadneedle Street: The Incredible True Story of the American Forgers Who Nearly Broke the Bank of England by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Norman Conquest by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book American to the Backbone: The Life of James W. C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death, and Happiness by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book While You Sleep: A Novel by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Last Jew of Treblinka by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Mangle Street Murders by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book Dark Asylum: A Novel (Jem Flockhart Mysteries) by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Burma Spring: Aung San Suu Kyi and the New Struggle for the Soul of a Nation by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book Tchaikovsky: The Man Revealed by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book Elsie and Mairi Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Real Justine: A Novel by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Listener: A Novel by Lisa Appignanesi
Cover of the book The Secret War Against Napoleon: Britain's Assassination Plot on the French Emperor by Lisa Appignanesi
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy