WITNESSES TO THE SCAFFOLD; ENGLISH LITERARY FIGURES AS OBSERVERS OF PUBLIC EXECUTIONS: PIERCE EGAN, THACKERAY, DICKENS, ALEXANDER SMITH, G.A. SALA, ORWELL.

Edited, with annotations, commentaries, and an introductory essay by Antony E. Simpson.

 

     "Why, asks Simpson, in the light of rapid social and moral progress evident during the Victorian age, was the 'barbarity' of a public hanging so widely observed and tolerated? Why did the sight of a dangling corpse exert such a hypnotic, uncontested cross-class appeal for so long, and what was the core attraction of these essentially brutal events? by bringing together a host of primary execution accounts for the first time, the editor of this fine anthology sets out to provide possible answers to some of these still generally perplexing questions. Prefaced by an authoritative essay surveying the changing nature of the nineteenth-century criminal code, and complemented by exceptionally detailed biographical chapter introductions, Simpson draws on the pertinent experiences of six key figures of a similar literary pedigree in order to expose the raw experience of witnessing judicial death...

     This book should be commended for several reasons, not least for the challenge it makes to orthodox depictions of public hangings as the vestiges of a primitive age...[T]he accounts included here are intriguing for their remarkably disparate points of view; reason enough for us to believe that the spectacle of death always carried with it a complex web of moral meanings, responsible in turn for the extraordinary range of reactions amongst those who chose to watch."

Urban History, (May 2009).

 

     "All of these [seven] accounts respond in various ways to the central question posed by Simpson's collection: 'What motivated this almost universal interest in observing felons die?'...Simpson's substantial introduction recounts the legal status of criminals sentenced to death during the nineteenth century, a period in which England's criminal justice system developed into one resembling today's...[and] is thorough in its appraisal of criminal law and rich in historical detail...The best pieces here single out the seemingly insignificant detail that compel the spectator to realize the enormity of the event...These images evoke the experience of witnessing an execution more effectively than any amount of historical background."

H-Albion, H-Net Reviews, (May 2009).

      "It was once widely believed that a public death served as a worthy deterrent preventing similar crimes by others. Witnesses to the Scaffold draws upon the minds of the nineteenth-century's greatest writers, and some of England's best minds as they recall their own experiences as they witness public executions. A compendium of primary sources, it provides a solid recollection of the archaic practice of public hanging. An intriguing and fascinating glimpse into history, Witnesses to the Scaffold is a must read for anyone studying the history of crime and punishment."

The Midwest Book Review, (November 2009).

 

      "In his introductory essay, Simpson gives a solid explanation concerning the range of crimes for which Britain meted out a death sentence, the techniques used, and the numbers of cases from 1805-1845....

      The fact that executions were public events...provides much worth discussing, particularly since they continued to draw crowds from all classes, both sexes, and even children. Professor Simpson's opening discussion on this range of issues is brief but thorough, and he draws on a wide range of source material in telling the broader story. A primary aim is to explore the crowd's psychology but, as a matter of literary criticism, to go further and ascertain whether 'these authors express empathy with the crowd as fellow witnesses to brutality, or superiority to it for its coarseness and insensitivity.'...

      As with the opening, lengthy essay. Professor Simpson's shorter entries provide background information to set up the authors' stories. He covers the authors' biographies, the condemned persons' crimes, and their biographies where known. He provides insight into how the executions may have influenced the authors' other work. His research into each story and its author is quite thorough as the numerous footnotes establish. In Dickens' case, the letters to the editor would be difficult to understand without the interpretive essay....

      This book should prove useful to those with an interest in the particular authors represented, to those with an interest in the history of the administration of British justice, and to activists and attorneys who deal with capital punishment....For those interested in law in literature, Witnesses to the Scaffold provides welcome insight into how a process, other than the jury trial, may have affected and infused the work of the the authors under consideration. Witnesses to the Scaffold could serve as an introductory text for those with a focused interest on the subject....[T]he stories and essays in Witnesses to the Scaffold bring us as close as we should ever hope to come to actually witnessing an execution."

Law & Politics Book Review, (13 December 2009).

 

     "In addition to all the details he provides on the individual cases, Simpson also relates the executions to broader British societal concerns....The cases thus become useful tools for exploring wider issues in British society...[The book] contains a good overview of the history of the administration of the criminal law, including trials, the pardoning process and public executions...framed within interesting narratives of crime."

Histoire Sociale/ Social History, (November 2009)

 

     "[The] editorial material featured in Witnesses to the Scaffold is extensive. The long introductory essay provides a comprehensive overview of the place of execution within the British criminal justice system during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It also sets out the fundamental concern of the book designed to link together the selected extracts: why do large numbers of people watch public executions? Simpson...presents a series of accounts from British literary figures of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to illustrate the diversity in depictions of the event and its spectators. For the most part, the sources are directly linked to the historical trajectory outlined in the introduction though each is also accompanied by a separate essay on the author and his work as well as the grounds for the execution."

Crime, Histoire & Sociétés/Crime, History & Societies, (no. 1, 2010)

 

     "The [editor's] comments are most welcome, with perhaps a special mention for Simpson's admirable decryption of Sala's ulterior motives."

Cercles: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone, (2010)

 

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