Criminal Literature

Abstract

The literature of crime in the period was affected both by the evolution of genres (notably in prose fiction and biography) and by changes in the theory and practice in law and penology. This chapter considers various forms of narrative, including rogues’ tales and quasi-picaresque novels; biographies and autobiographies; court reports and execution speeches of those involved in state trials as well as common criminal proceedings. Attention is given to the treatment of women criminals. All these are set against the background of contemporary thinking about crime and punishment within society at large. An attempt is made to show how these stories contributed to the debate on crime, and also how they made a lasting contribution to the literary forms they inhabit.