Suicide in Victorian and Edwardian England [Hardcover]

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.

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 earlÃ>