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The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones & Other Victorian Scandals
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
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The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones & Other Victorian Scandals
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Summary
A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era.
The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians. These include the story of a teenage man who married an actress, only to be shipped off to Australia by his disgusted parents; and the Italian ice-cream man who meant only to buy his sweetheart a hat but ended up proposing marriage instead. When he broke it off, his fiancée's father sued him, and the story was dubbed the 'Amusing Aberdeen Breach of Promise Case'. Also present is the gruesome story of the murder of Patrick O Connor, who was shot in the head and buried under the kitchen flagstones by his lover, Maria Manning, and her husband, Frederick. The couple's subsequent trial caused a sensation, and even author Charles Dickens attended the grisly public hanging.
Drawing on a range of sources from university records and Old Bailey transcripts to national and regional newspaper archives, Michelle Morgan's research sheds new light on well-known stories as well as unearthing previously unknown incidents.
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What listeners say about The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones & Other Victorian Scandals
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Reverend Simon Hodding
- 16-05-18
Excellent storyline
Absolutely loved this audio book
Great little stories with great detail to events
The storytelling is fantastic
I can't recommend this book highly enough
BRILLIANT
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Miss A Bourke
- 24-02-23
Interesting & bizarre victorian stories
If you love victorian crime stories this is for you. Not so well known stories, many revealing the attitudes of the time, especially towards women. I enjoyed this book, though some of the voice acting was a little irritating; all in all a great listen. I plan to listen again soon
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 16-05-20
Interesting insight into Victorian life
I really enjoyed this book. It’s a very easy listen and the subject matter is really interesting. The stories covered are more obscure than the usual Victorian crime books. Well worth a listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-08-19
Easy listening whilst gripping and mesmerising
This audiobook is perfect for anyone with an interest in unusual or mysterious historical crimes. Some stories are short, some are up to an hour long making it easy to come back to at any time. There is a good mix of gory content and more subdued cases.
Whilst some accents were performed questionably, Anne Dover was precise and clear.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Happy Jack
- 05-09-22
Interesting stories but poorly written
This is an interesting collection of lesser-known scandals, murders and mysteries from the Victorian era which will definitely be of interest to fans of this genre. Some of the tales are extremely lengthy (such as the title story), others only touched upon with the briefest of details - which I found a bit peculiar.
Well read by the narrator despite her at best hopeful attempts at regional accents.
The most disappointing aspect was the clunky prose and limited descriptive skills which made it hard for me to maintain concentration at times. Often, the repetitive nature of the text made me feel that I was listening to the same story several times over, which was a shame.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Julieb
- 02-09-18
interesting new tales.
very good. lots of stories I had not heard before. very good entertainment. liked the narration too.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- D H POWELL
- 14-01-22
A jolly good book well read.
A good narrator who made a potentially slow book flow well, despite needing to change accents.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Richard Johnston
- 04-10-19
Interesting anthology
This book is a kind of anthology of interesting but little-known Victorian crimes, scandals and mysterious events. The 43 episodes are divided into three sections:
“A Fine Line Between Love and Hate”
“Don’t Put Your Daughter (or son) On The Stage”
“Scandals to Amuse, Bemuse or Perplex”.
The result is an interesting collection of oddities ranging from the serious to the silly. Most of the items are quite short the excellent narrator, Anne Dover, polishing many off in a matter of less than 15 minutes. Two chapters are much more extended lasting for more than an hour. While some of the scandals and murders received enormous coverage by the Victorian media, most of these events were quickly forgotten after a transient bit of publicity. Taken as a whole there is a considerable amount of social history and generally speaking the book is better read now and again rather than in one long stretch.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Trellis
- 22-08-18
Oh god the accents
The stories are great but this narrator should leave the accents alone. In one of the stories based in Scotland the characters vary from Irish to Cornish to Scouser to Scots in the space of a couple of sentences. It’s painful and ruined the book for me.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Franklymydarling
- 16-10-20
Interesting stories. Well worth a listen if you are interested in the Victorian era.
I enjoyed this book. As it progressed the stories got more and more interesting and intriguing. I thought the narration was fine, and would recommend this book to those interested in the Victorian era.
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2 people found this helpful