Suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England

by Olive Anderson

Overview

The first serious historical study of a central human problem, this book opens new avenues for understanding the nature of—and responses to—suicidal behavior as it charts unexplored terrain in the general history of death. Using an unusual array of historical techniques and sources, including coroners' private case papers, Olive Anderson examines in turn four key elements in the study of suicide: suicide rates and distribution, individual experiences, social attitudes, and efforts at prevention. Her lucid and humane approach to this sensitive subject affords unique perspectives on the significance of time, place, age, and gender; on law, literature, medicine, and collective mentalities; and on the police, philanthropy, and public policy in Victorian and Edwardian England.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198201014
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/08/1987
Pages:	489
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.75(h) x 1.27(d)

Editorial Reviews

"Fascinating...It is an important contribution to a neglected subject, and will repay close reading."—Albion

"Anderson has produced an indispensable work...[I]ndispensable reading."—Modern Europee

"Anderson's book is thus much to be welcomed, as the first major historical study of this central human problem."—The New York Review of Books

"Excellent...Surely ranks as the most insightful and best documented study now available on suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England...A brief summary cannot do justice to the richness and complexity of the picture Anderson draws. She includes insights from literature and the visual arts and also from international comparisons...This multilayered investigation is an example of social history at its best."—History

"Scholars of Victorian and Edwardian England and of suicide will find it indispensable reading."—American Historical Review

"Pioneering...A carefully documented and lucidly written study of suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England."—Victorian Studies

"The most complete, thorough, incisive analysis of suicide in 19th- and early 20th-century England. The work is based upon an impressive variety of published and unpublished sources...After carefully analyzing the problems of using suicide statistics, the author explores with admirable clarity the changing correlations among gender, age, class, and geography, and the propensity to self-destruction. She enhances her quantitative analyses with sensitive qualitative descriptions of the suicide experience in London and elsewhere...Her very readable text...should be read with profit by students in history, sociology, and historical demography."—CHOICE

"What a joy it is to come across a book that is not only informative and illuminating, but also immensely readable and entertaining...Comprehensive and well-documented...It is impossible in a few words to do justice to this monumental book...Open it at random and one's eye is caught by some fascinating titbit of interest, so packed is it with unusual historical information."—The Lancet

"This masterful book is in many ways unique...What concerns Anderson is in the main the social context of voluntary death. Her focus is on the 'precipitating causes' of suicide. Anderson does not discuss in any detail either past or present psychological explanations of suicidal behavior...She writes instead about the visible signs that surround voluntary death. Her topic is the social ecology of suicide in matters such as familial life, rates of divorce, and bereavement. She is more interested also in the broad context than in individual cases...[V]ery thorough treatment." —ISIS

From the Publisher