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.
Lambertville, NJ: The True Bill Press. 230p.
ISBN-10: 0-9791116-1-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-9791116-1-7
Published July 2008 in hard cover at a price of $65.00.
The public execution, a routine ceremony which lasted in Britain until 1868 and elsewhere in the Empire until the 20th century, is here documented through the personal accounts of six literary figures. These accounts are discussed in the context of the gradual emergence of a modern system of criminal justice. It is suggested that it was concern for the behavior of the crowd, rather than for the fate of the condemned, which strongly affected most of these writers.
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