Murder by the Book

In May 1840, Lord William Russell, an aristocrat, is found dead in his London townhouse with his throat cut. Suspicion falls on his valet, François Courvoisier, but the evidence against him is thin. It firms up only when investigators learn what the valet had been reading: Jack Sheppard. William Harrison Ainsworth's hugely popular novel follows a criminal who escapes the gallows again and again.

Claire Harman uses the case as a way into the history of the Newgate novel, a genre of sensational fiction drawn from the world of crime. These books dominated the bestseller lists in the years before the murder. They alarmed the literary establishment of the day.

The killing sets off a public argument over whether such novels can push readers toward real violence. Charles Dickens and William Thackeray, both early in their careers, take opposite sides. Dickens defends the form and Thackeray condemns it. Queen Victoria follows the case closely.

This is non-fiction that blends true crime, Victorian publishing history and literary biography. It treats the Russell murder as one of the first public panics over whether fiction can cause harm in the real world. It suits readers curious about the book trade and the literary quarrels of the 1840s.