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- 3.1 The Newgate Novel
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A dissimilar view of the general public was placed as on the Newgate novel as on the sensational genre. The Newgate novel and sensational novel were both literary concept with plots focusing on the criminal deeds, and it can be said that their formation is probably connected with the increase of the newspapers. Newgate fiction had certainly a large influence on the representation of crime in the nineteenth-century novel in general, and on the shaping of genres like the sensational novel and the detective novel are. The Newgate novels can be considered as crime novels, and, in some cases as novels with historical elements, which described the adventurous stories of legendary eighteenthcentury criminals. By the start of the nineteenth century, crime fiction did not point to the status of justice, but was formed as literature genre with the general purpose to entertain. Later the interest of readers changed. The stories about the criminals were superceded by the stories where the main figures were involved in capturing and punishing the criminals. The ground of a literature of detection was laid. 3.1 The Newgate Novel 18 The background of spy fiction can be seen in so called Newgate and sensation novels which played a very important role in English literature and which could inspire many other literary genres. What is interesting is the fact that the first crime literature depicted the criminals as the harmonious and positive heroes. The Newgate novels or so called Old Bailey novels were created in England from the la te 1820´s unti l the 1840 ´s and were dete rmine d to gla mori z e the lives of the criminals which they pictured. Most Newgate novels took their inspiration from the Newgate Calendar, a biography of famous criminals. The first Newgate Calendar appeared in 5 volumes in 1773, and later calendars in 1824-26. These stories came up anonymously. 19 Newspapers and periodicals helped sales with good crime stories, especially with sensational violent crime. During the eighteenth century biographies and autobiographies of offenders (Captain John Kidd, Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, Dick Turpin. Several of these had never seen the inside of Newgate. ) started to come up to and the careers of 18 19 What is the Newgate Calendar? Ryerson University Canada. 15 October 2009 17
burglars, highwayman, murderers and pirates were focused on. 2021 Printers were probably so using the name with Newgate attribute to sell more such stories. The literature of the eighteenth century treats the crime in a specific way. “The mai n tool of law-enforcement was the fear of horrific punishment if caught : the so called “Bloody Code” whi ch penalized even minor thefts with death.” 22 The Bloody Code of the eighteenth century was known for its brutality. Exile overseas, to the America, Australia or New Zealand, was the next punishment. The Newgate Calendar (generally known from 1773)23 is one of the first, and maybe the most prosperous collection of the stories of criminals. It took its name from Newgate London´s pri son. 24 From thi s mai n London´s pri son , the criminals were taken through the excited crowds to the gallows at Tyburn. 25 Newgate was the most well-known prison of eighteenth-century in Great Britain and it was not intended as the place for the execution of punishment, it was mainly a place for those who were awaiting trial at the court of the Old Bailey. The Old Bailey was the criminal court for the capital of London which met eight times during the year. 26 The calendars were the lists of prisoners shaped and prepared for trial at the judicial sitting. The calendars provided detailed printed information of the accused and of their misdeeds and their copy was generally wrapped around the indictments handed and presented to the court.27 Newgate novels were crime novels, and, in some cases novels with historical elements, which tracked the adventurous stories of legendary eighteenth-century criminals. Their settings ranged from castles to various nests intended for frequently meetings of the underworld members. The Newgate stories tended to glamorize crime, and spread likings and sympathy for criminals and their deeds, but not for the victims of crime. 20 What is the Newgate Calendar? Ryerson University Canada. 15 October 2009 2122 Priestman, Martin. The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. p.7. 23 What is the Newgate Calendar? Ryerson University Canada. 15 October 2009 25 24 Priestman, Martin. The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003. p.7.. 26 The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674 -1913. 21 December 2009 < http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/> 27 Emsley, Clive. The Newgate Ware: Wordsworth Classic of World Literature . 1997. p.X What is the Newgate Calendar? Ryerson University Canada. 15 October 2009 http://www.ryerson.ca/~denisoff/newgate-defined.html Priestman, Martin. .: Op.cit.,p.20 18
28 As it was said before, the Newgate novels found their names, their leading characters and plots from the various stories of the Newgate Calendar. Moreover these stories were connected solely with male authors. Edward Bulwer Lytton was the first author involved in Newgate and he created the novel called Paul Clifford (published in 1830), which is considered as the first novel with Newgate elements.29 This novel represents an attack on the obsolete legal and penal system. “ The legal and penal systems of Clifford´s day were oppressive, corrupt, inhumane and ineffective” and prisons brutal and insanitary.30 “ According to Bulwer, crime is both a social construct and the product of unfair social conditions.” 31 Bulwer tended to glamorize his highwaymen by treating them as noble vagabonds.32 Bulwer ´s another novel, Eugene Aram (1832) was also Newgate novel with a criminal hero, but based on an existing murderer who had been hanged in 1759. 33Also here is crime glorified and glamorized. Also William Harrison Ainsworth supplemented the lists of Newgate novelists with his Rookwood (1834), which was the romance about the highwayman Dick Turpin, the criminal who really existed.34 Ainsworth involved some gothic (“ the most prevalent fictional genres of the late eighteenth century, the gothic - the first gothic novel Hora ce Wal pole ´s The Castle of Otrando35, was the genre where powerful men with guilty secrets had been forced to confess their crimes by a variety of pressures ranging from haunting to more internalized torments”36) in his Rookwood. In contrast to Ainsworth´s thoughtless romances, many of Bulwer´s crime novels, primarily Paul Clifford were determined as critique of social injustice and a legal system that was created and exercised in favor of the rich and privileged class. The genre reached its peak with Ainswort h´s Jack Shepperd published 28 Baldellou, Marta Miquel. Bulwer-Lytton´s Pau l Clifford and Poe´s tales. The Victorian Web. 6 November 2009 Yüklə 0,5 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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