135
as Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, as well as the reactions of the general and
medical press and Taylors response.
Poison, Detection and the Victorian Imaginations careful study of a great diversity
of English sourcesnewspapers, medical journals, toxicology textbooks, trial docu-
ments, and literatureprovides new insights into the interplay between science, medi-
cine, and the Victorian imagination. Through this work, Burney revisits old images of
poisons and poisoners and suggests avenues for future research in a topic that is at the
crossroads of many disciplines, including gender studies, literary criticism, cultural
history, philosophy, and sociology. Burney breaks down many disciplinary boundaries
and furnishes a creative laboratory of ideas that will be useful for further historical
analysis of other legal, cultural, and scientific contexts, such as continental Europe.
This fine-grained reconstruction of the interwoven cultures of poison in nineteenth-
century Britain will appeal to a wide audience, including historians of popular culture,
law, medicine, and chemistry.
Jos Ramn Bertomeu-Snchez
University of Valencia
The Good Old Days: Crime, Murder and Mayhem in Victorian London, by Gilda
ONeill; pp. xiv + 286. London: Viking, Penguin Books, 2006, 16.99, 7.99 paper.
Poisoned Lives: English Poisoners and their Victims, by Katherine Watson; London
and New York: Hambledon Continuum, 2003, 8.99 paper, $21.95 paper.
Nostalgia, Werner J. Dannhauser observed, predominates as the non-philosophical or
sub-philosophical response to the past and the passing of time. It is the unthinking
mans way of coming to terms with history (History and the Idea of Progress, ed. A. Melzer,
J. Weinberger, and M. R. Zinman, [1995] 118). Yet there are many literary (if not schol-
arly) evocations of some previous era when juvenile delinquents were clipped round
the ear by stern-looking police constables, criminals shrugged and confessed, Its a
fair cop Guv, and people could leave their doors open with impunity. Fortunately,
Gilda ONeill is critical of this tired trope.
The Good Old Days adopts Henry Mayhews mid-Victorian format of exam-
ining Londons street dwellers, tricksters, con men, prostitutes, the low-life, and
weightier criminals, and exploring how they were viewed by contemporary commenta-
tors and by the people charged with controlling this layer of society in the worlds
largest and most important city. There are similar books (Kellow Chesneys The Victo-
rian Underworld [1970]; William Fishmans East End 1888 [1988]; and for a slightly later
period, Raphael Samuels East End Underworld [1981]), and they contain many of the
same characters, though ONeill devotes more space to the Whitechapel murders of
1888. The illustrations, photographs, and glossary of slang terms are useful, and
ONeills approachable and engaging style will make her work accessible to a general
readership. In fact, one wonders whom the book is aimed at. Because it consults contem-
porary sources and speaks with authority about the lived experiences of East End
autumn 2007
136
dwellers, it seems to bridge the gap between scholarly treatise and the mass of oral
memoirs about that part of London. Academic researchers and students, though, will
likely judge ONeills book an interesting read, while regretting that she does not
examine her lively material through the lens of more academically rigorous studies of
Londons crime and criminals in this period. The Good Old Days is aimed at those with a
keen general interest, and its unsentimental approach to the past is to be commended
rather than condemned. ONeill writes in conclusion: Rather than being the good old
days, we have seen that...[Victorian England] could be a bloody and an awful place in
which to liveunless you were fortunate enough to be a member of the privileged
classes and, even better, if you were male into the bargain (259). Any book with a wide
audience that concludes with I dont believe the answer [to crime] lies in a return to
Victorian values deserves approval (261).
Lack of academic rigour is not an allegation that could be leveled at Kath-
erine Watsons detailed and well-referenced Poisoned Lives: English Poisoners and their
Victims. It will be one of the main points of reference for historians of poisoning (the list
of primary sources is particularly useful), and will, one suspects, be a useful read for
historians of forensic science. The meticulous depiction of poisoners from the eigh-
teenth century to the present day is complemented by overarching discussions of the
increasing capacity of the scientific detection of poison in the body; the methods, moti-
vations, and opportunities for poisoning; and the impact these cases had on public
conceptions of female crime and femininity itself.
Although the Whitechapel murders have had a more lasting legacy, Watson
points out that two of the most famous murderers convicted in England were poisoners
(although both were actually American citizens). Watson manages, however, to avoid
running through a list of famous poisoners. Her work instead interlinks themes and
concerns, which allows a full exploration of the victims and perpetrators without any
chronological simplicity. Each case is separate and conditioned by individual circum-
stances and historical conditions, but Watson manages to pick out the important
changes and continuities in the history of poisoning.
Which one of these books will I pick up off the shelf? Watsons is the more
scholarly, and the one Ill turn to for research purposes. However, although I would not
recommend ONeills book for students, I may well choose to read The Good Old Days out
of interest and recommend it to those who have a general interest in crime history or in
Victorian London.
Barry Godfrey
Keele University
The Transforming Draught: Jekyll and Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson and the Victo-
rian Alcohol Debate, by Thomas L. Reed Jr.; pp. 268. Jefferson, NC and London: McFar-
land & Co., Inc., 2006, $35.00 paper, 22.50 paper.
Thomas L. Reeds The Transforming Draught argues that the concepts and narratives of
the Victorian temperance movement are embedded in the characters, dialogue, and
victorian studies
