Description
Book SynopsisThe author reconstructs the relation of the novel to 19th-century law courts. He argues that the courts, newly fashioned as a site in which to orchestrate voices and reconstruct stories, arose as a cultural presence influencing the shape of the English novel.
Trade ReviewAmong those texts that attend both to historical environment and formal or generic pressures, Jonathan H. Grossman's The Art of Alibi stands out. -- Andrew H. Miller Studies in English Literature 2003 [An] absorbing study of the cultural influence of the law courts on the Victorian novel... Grossman's refusal to simply draw an analogy between trials and novels distinguishes his argument from others working in the crossover territory between legal studies and literary criticism. -- David McAllister Times Literary Supplement 2003 Grossman's innovative study is a provocative reconsideration of the early nineteenth-century novel and should stimulate further exploration of the generative intersection of law and literature. -- Gareth Cordery Dickens Quarterly 2004
Table of ContentsContents: List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction ONE: From Scaffold to Law Court, from Criminal Broadsheet and Biography to Newspaper Novel TWO: Caleb Williams and the Novel's Forensic Form THREE: Mary Shelley's Legal Frankenstein FOUR: Victorian Courthouse Structures FIVE: Mary Barton's Telltale Evidence SIX: The Newgate Novel and Advent of Detective Fiction Conclusion Notes Index
