Classic Crimes [Hardcover]

W.N Roughead (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2008

CLASSIC CRIMES BY WILLIAM ROUGHEAD ALSO BY W. ROUGHEAD: RHYME WITHOUT REASON TWELVE SCOTS TRIALS THE RIDDLE OF THE RUTHVENS GLENGARRYS WAY THE FATAL COUNTESS THE REBEL EARL MALICE DOMESTIC THE EVIL THAT MEN Do BAD COMPANIONS WHAT Is YOUB VERDICT? IN QUEER STREET ROGUES WALK HERE KNAVES LOOKINGGLASS MAINLY MURDER THE SEAMY SIDE NECK OR NOTHING RASCALS REVIVED REPROBATES REVIEWED Notable British Trials : DR. PRITCHARD DEACON BRODIE CAPTAIN PORTEOUS OSCAR SLATER MRS MCLACHLAN MAHY BLANDY BURKE AND HARE KATHARINE NAIRN J. D MERRETT J.W LAURIE CLASSIC CRIMES CONTENTS PREFACE: BY JAMES BRIDIE KATHARINE NAIRN DEACON BRODIE THE WEST PORT MURDERS To MEET Miss MADELEINE SMITH CONSTANCE KENTS CONSCIENCE THE SANDYFORD MYSTERY THE BALHAM MYSTERY DR PRITCHARD REVISITED THE ARRAN MURDER THE ARDLAMONT MYSTERY THE SLATER CASE THE MERHETT MYSTERY PREFACE THIS age of atheists, materialists and neopsychologists finds little place in its cosmogony for the entity Called Evil, By and large, we agree with the old Scotswoman who held that Whats naturals no nasty. By and large, the practical application of our theories seems to work even less satisfactorily than in the days when the personal Devil was a familiar and even popular figure, I am no great reader, but I get the impression that the few writers who still cherish His memory and seriously examine His works are a few English and French Roman Catholics and a handful of Calvinists north of the Tweed. I get the further impression that the Catholics are afraid of Him and that the Calvinists treat Him with the affectionate regard shown by pathologists to their favourite strains of streptococci. Before I expatiate on the greatest living exponent of the Calvinist attitude to Evil, may I be allowed a word or two on the Crime Novel? I have been reading a little of Cheyney and Charteris, who stem, I believe,rom a very flourishing American school. These books deal with the war of Society against its enemies without accepting explicitly or implicitly any idea of a moral Universe. Except from the point of view of physical beauty, there is little to choose between the athletic, ingenious, chainsmoking, whiskyswilling hero and the villains he socks, slugs, pokes in the kisser, outwits and finally rubs out Even the simple morality of the Queensberry Rules has no place in the fights. These are Ossianic in their primitiveness, as much as in their incredibility.

Editorial Reviews

Review

''A volume which must henceforth be the cornerstone of any library of crime.'' -- The New York Times

''Intelligence, skepticism, and a flair for old-fashioned storytelling.'' -- Joyce Carol Oates --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

William Roughead (1870-1952) was born in Edinburgh, where he studied law and became an expert on criminology. Between 1889 and 1949 he attended every murder trial of significance held in the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, publishing his accounts of them in a series of bestselling books. He held the legal title of Writer to His Majesty's Signet and was an editor of ''the Notable British Trials Series.'' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 468 pages
• Publisher: Hesperides Press (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1443721875
• ISBN-13: 978-1443721875
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,855,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great tales in an unsatisfactory edition, November 15, 2000

By 

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Classic Crimes (New York Review Books) (Paperback)

William Roughead's accounts of great crimes from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland and England are about the most delicious mind candy I can think of; I opened this new edition from NYRB and almost couldn't put it down. While his vocabulary and style at times go a bit overboard in terms of their purpleness, he still presents very readable and exciting accounts of some incredible crimes which still haunt the popular imagination today (such as his account of the West Port murders of Burke and Hare, the body snatchers).

Re-issuing Roughead's work is really a feather in NYRB's cap, and yet I can't help wishing they had taken more pains with this edition. (Because of this, I felt I could not really offer it the five stars it otherwise would've deserved.) The introduction by Luc Sante is interesting, but not without errors: he notes that all of the crimes excepting those of Burke and Hare "are discoveries [on the part of Roughead]"; yet Roughead himself admits that Deacon Brodie's case has been dramatized many times, and inspired Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Madeleine Smith's trial inspired a film, "Madeleine," directed by David Lean in the 1950s. Similarly, no editor seems to have taken the time to annotate some of Roughead's more bizarre (or anachronistic, or peculiarly Scottish) terms: "douce" is used repeatedly for "sweet", and "lands" (apparently a term for the highrise towers in Edinburgh) recurs often too, yet there's nary a word of explanation. This lack of editorial interference is not welcome, especially since Roughead often refers repeatedly to other writings of his which his original audience would have recognized but which remain obscure to a contemporary reader.

Still, this book is a real treasure--and, as with all NYRB books, it comes on beautiful paper and with a gorgeous cover.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Holy Grail of True Crime Literature, September 3, 2000

By 

John Stark Bellamy II - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Crimes (New York Review Books) (Paperback)

Simply put, William Roughead was and is the greatest true crime writer of them all. Combining unusually supple storytelling talents with an inimitable, pawky sense of humor, he remains the best prose stylist chronicling human depravity since, well, the compilers of the King James Bible. A Scot by birth, Roughead became a Writer to the Signet at the turn of the last century, a privileged position which allowed him to attend and write up the great murder trials of his day and his favorites from Great Britain's colorfully criminous past. Almost all of his works are shamefully out of print but are well worth searching out in used book stores: both his own popular accounts and his contributions to the more formally edited "Notable British Trials" series. Henry James was one of his many besotted fans, and even the briefest sample of his work makes it obvious why true crime buffs consider him the Master. "Classic Crimes" (which includes chapters on Deacon Brodie, Burke and Hare, Madeleine Smith, Dr. Pritchard and other irresistible villains) is the best collection of his work, and I would be remiss if I did not own that my introduction to his peerless work came via Toni Morrison, who confessed her own idolatrous admiration in the New York Times Book Review some two decades ago. If you like Roughead, you'll never be able to get enough. As Luc Sante writers in his perceptive introduction to this latest reprint, Roughead repeatedly creates narratives which contain "in full that collision of placid, well-furnished pedantry with savage howling atavism" that was the keynote of his fascination with evil--and Roughead did believe in evil--people. More of his genius is avalable on display in "Twelve Scots Trials," available from Amazon. co.uk. As Roughead so eloquently put it: "Murder has a magic of its own, its peculair alchemy. Touched by that crimson wand, things base and sordid, things ugly and of ill report, are transformed into matters wondrous, weird and tragical. Dull streets become fraught with mystery, commonplace dwellings assume sinister aspects, everyone concerned, howsoever plain and ordinary, is invested with a new value and importance as the red light fall upon each."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic collection by the greatest true-crime writer, February 24, 2000

By 

John Stark Bellamy II - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Crimes: A Selection from the Works of William Roughead (Hardcover)

Simply put, William Roughead was and is the greatest true crime writer of them all. Combining a supple prose style with an inimitable, pawky sense of humor, he remains the best prose stylist chronicling human depravity since, well, the authors of the King James Bible. A Scot by birth, Roughead became a Writer to the Signet, a privileged position which allowed him to attend and write up the great murder trials of his era (1870-1952). His works are shamefully out of print and are well worth searching out in used book stores: both his commercial collections and his contributions to the "Notable British Trials" series. Henry James was one of his many devoted fans and even the briefest sample of his prose makes it obvious why true-crime buffs consider him the master. "Classic Crimes"(which includes chapters on Deacon Brodie, Burke and Hare, Madeleine Smith, Dr. Pritchard, William Palmer, etc.) is the best collection of his work in print and I would be remiss if I did not mention that I owe my introduction to this peerless writer to Toni Morrison, who confessed her own idolatrous admiration in a New York Times Book Review piece more than 20 years ago. If you like his stuff you'll never be able to get enough of it. (Also worth securing are the works of Roughead's friend, the American Edmund Pearson, whose "Studies in Murder" was reprinted last last by the Ohio State University Press.) As Roughead so eloquently put it: "Murder has a magic of its own, its peculiar alchemy. Touched by that crimson wand, things base and sordid, things ugly and of ill report, are transformed into matters wondrous, weird and tragical. Dull streets become fraught with mystery, commonplace dwellings assume sinister aspects, everyone concerned, howsoever plain and ordinary, is invested with a new value and importance as the red light falls upon each."