The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) [Paperback]

Rick Geary (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997 | Series: A Treasury of Victorian Murder

“Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks, when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one!” The famous Lizzie Borden double murder.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rick Geary received quite a bit of critical praise for his Jack the Ripper volume of A Treasury of Victorian Murder, and rightfully so. The Borden Tragedy (the third volume in the series), is no less impressive. Based on the famous 19th-century Lizzie Borden double murder, this comic-book version of the event is supposedly excerpted and adapted from the unpublished writings of an unknown woman from the Borden's hometown of Fall River. The narrator, a friend of Lizzie Borden, is intent on finding out all of the facts behind such a grizzly butchering. We are taken through meticulously researched evidence, all stunningly illustrated by Geary, but Geary leaves us without taking a strong stand one way or the other. As an extra treat, the back cover includes a list of comparisons between Lizzie Borden and O. J. Simpson.

From Publishers Weekly

Comics artist Geary returns with another typically superlative work, the third in his series, A Treasury of Victorian Murder. As in his Jack the Ripper, Geary uses a fictional narrator to present a stylish, painstakingly researched treatment of the gruesome 1892 ax-murders of Abby and Andrew Borden in Falls River, Mass., and of the investigation, trial, and public and media spectacle that followed. The unsolved Borden murders have passed into folklore ("Lizzie Borden took an ax, gave her mother forty whacks") and the question of Lizzie's guilt (she was acquitted but remained under suspicion for the rest of her life) remains unanswered in Geary's book. It's Geary's artfully precise reconstruction of turn-of-the-century Falls River that makes his work so haunting, and such a delight. Geary carefully re-creates the layout of the town (complete with maps); the history, quirks and familial resentments of the prominent Borden family; and, of course, the bloody hatchet murders themselves, complete with minute details of the police investigation and a look at the forensic techniques of the time. His marvelous black-and-white drawings alternate a heavy, sensuous line with more delicate linear accents, deftly capturing the architecture, clothing, objects and everyday details of small-town life in the 1890s.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: NBM Publishing; Original edition (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561631892
• ISBN-13: 978-1561631896
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #295,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Humor > Lawyers & Criminals
  • #18 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Mystery

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Been There, Done That... Got the Shirt, February 7, 2002

By 

Asmodeus (Spokane, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) (Paperback)

Mr. Geary... my hat is off to you, sir!

"The Borden Tragedy" is near perfect in all it's pictoral details and facts. I can attest to this as I have actually stayed the night in the infamous guest room where dear ol' step-mommy's bludgeoned body was found, had a lengthy conversation with the Borden historian in Fall River, read the interrogation notes and the police blotter from the time of Lizzie's arrest, as well as having dug up as much information as I possibly could before my actual visit so I would be ready to ask a plethora of questions. I can tell you with absolute certainty: Geary has his act together here.

For those of you that might not be familar with the term "graphic novel", it basically means "a really fancy comic book with lots of words". Be that as it may, Geary managed to cram pack the pages with more information about the Borden case than you can shake a bloody axe handle at. (Granted, there is still quite a bit more to the case... but this is just a comic book designed for light reading!)

The illustrations are beautifully intricate and detailed. All the maps of town and of the rooms within the residence itself are accurate... down to the placement of furniture. Geary introduces briefly throughout the novel many of the alternate theories and possible other suspects to the grisly murders. He has done a wonderful job of recreating the entire series of events that took place that stifling summer of 1892.

Included at the rear of the book are several pages of press clippings of the time as well as Lizzie's Indictment. The back cover has an eerie comparison of the Borden case to that of the Simpson case a hundred years later.

There are about 3 discrepencies I have found within the pages of "The Borden Tragedy", but they are so minute that they really don't bear mentioning. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has a love of comics, Borden affectionados/collectors, or simply anyone wanting a very brief yet still accurate introduction to one of the most famous unsolved crimes in all of american history.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lizzie Borden was the O.J. Simpson of her day, February 8, 2004

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) (Paperback)

Rick Geary makes that clear on the back cover of The Borden Tragedy, a straightforward investigation into the infamous double murder in Fall River, Mass., in 1892. While the contents of the book focus strictly on the case, its victims and suspects, the back cover draws various amusing (and convincing) comparisons between Borden in 1892 and Simpson in 1994, from the celebrity surrounding the crime to the "not guilty" verdict that closed the trial.

Between the covers, however, Geary provides a wonderfully direct account of the incident, drawing on anonymous memoirs from the time they were discovered in a trunk in 1990. While using that typed manuscript as his source, Geary verified his facts with numerous other sources, compiling a fascinating summation to accompany his illustrated narration.

The terse account is filled with details that suggest it was written by a close associate of the family. The narrative is written formally, evocative of the time, and Geary's black-and-white illustrations provide a fly-on-the-wall view of events as they unfolded. The book draws no conclusions about the murderer's identity; the killer is always off-panel or shown only in shadow. And, while a small amount of blood is unavoidable in a story of this sort, the book never descends into tasteless levels of gore.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and highly informative, December 10, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) (Paperback)

This book is part of the Treasury of Victorian Murder series, a series of books in graphic novel form that tell the stories of famous nineteenth century murders. This book tells the story of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, who were brutally hacked to death with an axe; a crime for which their daughter Lizzie was charged, leading to the famous children's rhyme, "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one!"

This is a really good book, one that I saw my daughter reading. She is thirteen years old, and was interested in the double-murder, and got this book for herself. She found the book highly informative and certainly not too gruesome.

Reading it for myself, I was impressed with the way the author used the graphic novel format to bring the story to life, but without being too graphic or gruesome. He successfully walked a fine line, presenting the facts of the murders in an even-handed manner, including facts that seem to implicate Lizzie Borden and those that seem to exonerate her. Overall, I found this to be a fascinating and highly informative book.

So, if you are interested in the Lizzie Borden case, and want an easy to read, and yet balanced and informative read, then this book is for you. My thirteen year old daughter and I both highly recommend this book to you.