Victorian Studies in Scarlet - Murders and Manners in the Age of Victoria

"Of course I do not wish for murders," a character in a nineteenth-century novel remarks, "but when there is one, why, I like it. It is human nature." Human nature it is indeed, and murder has always fascinated mankind. Never, however, was the absorption more tireless, never was the shudder of terror closer to enjoyment than in the Victorian era.