This book explores ideas of violent femininity across generic and disciplinary boundaries during the nineteenth century. It aims to highlight how medical, legal and literary narratives shared notions of the volatile nature of women. Mangham traces intersections between notorious legal trials, theories of female insanity, and sensation novels.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Smouldering Fires: Legal, Medical and Journalistic Profiles of the Violent Woman 'The Terrible Chemistry of Nature': Literary Representations of the Road Murder 'Frail Erections': Male Ambition and the Exploitation of Violent Women in the Fiction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon 'Nest-Building Apes': Female Follies and Bourgeois Culture in the Novels of Mrs Henry Wood Hidden Shadows: Dangerous Women and Obscure Diseases in the Novels of Wilkie Collins Conclusion Bibliography Index
