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  • The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals

  • By: Michelle Morgan
  • Narrated by: Anne Dover
  • Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

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The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals

By: Michelle Morgan
Narrated by: Anne Dover
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Publisher's Summary

A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. 

The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians. These include the story of a teenage man who married an actress, only to be shipped off to Australia by his disgusted parents; and the Italian ice-cream man who meant only to buy his sweetheart a hat but ended up proposing marriage instead. When he broke it off, his fiancée's father sued him, and the story was dubbed the 'Amusing Aberdeen Breach of Promise Case'. Also present is the gruesome story of the murder of Patrick O Connor, who was shot in the head and buried under the kitchen flagstones by his lover, Maria Manning, and her husband, Frederick. The couple's subsequent trial caused a sensation, and even author Charles Dickens attended the grisly public hanging. 

Drawing on a range of sources from university records and Old Bailey transcripts to national and regional newspaper archives, Michelle Morgan's research sheds new light on well-known stories as well as unearthing previously unknown incidents. 

©2018 Michelle Morgan (P)2018 Little, Brown Book Group

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  • Jen
  • 07-10-2018

It was ok

This isn't a terrible book, it's just a bit blah.

It's written in the style where every chapter is a mini-story, so it reads like a collection of newspaper articles.Just telling the facts and fleshing out a few characters but no real depth or insight. Definitely doesn't shed light on the Victorian era so the storied could have happened in any setting.

The reader does some really annoying character voices. Ewww..

I think I'd have really enjoyed this when I was about 14 and I was going through a ghoulish period - but the adult me finds it lacking in depth and insight.

For a book that focuses on a specific historical period, I expect some insight into that period.

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