Sleepless Souls - Suicide in Early Modern England

ISBN-13: 9780198229193 / Angielski / Twarda / 1991 / 400 str.

Michael MacDonald; Terence R. Murphy

Opis

Suicide was regarded as a deplorable act, subject to savage punishments, in Tudor and Stuart England. In Georgian England it was de-criminalized, tolerated, and even sentimentalized. Drawing on a wide variety of contemporary sources, Sleepless Souls traces the causes of this dramatic shift in attitude. Michael MacDonald and Terence R. Murphy relate changes in opinion and practice to the complex framework of life in early modern England--including political events, religious changes, philosophical fashions, and differing class interests. Their analysis uncovers the forces that were reshaping the mental outlook of different English classes and social groups, and consequently provides an invaluable social and cultural history of English society over three centuries.

Recenzje

they have written a very distinguished book indeed ... It is extremely learned in fields ranging from coroners" inquests to literary criticism ... They have done a fine job, and their close, on Dickie Bracknell's ghost from Lark Rise to Candleford, is as imaginative and intelligent as the rest.

Spis treści

List of tables; List of figures; Abbreviations; Introduction; I. The Era of Severity: The rise of self-murder; The instigation of the devil; Opposition and ambivalence; II. The Secularization of Suicide: The revival of leniency; The invention of suicide; Elite opinions, Plebeian beliefs; III. The Hermeneutics of Suicide: The identification of suicides; Motives for suicide; The medium and the message; Epilogue; Appendices: 1. Sources; Statistics; Bibliography: Manuscript sources; Contemporary periodicals; Index