Een zaak van liefde

by Lisa Appignanesi

Aan het einde van de negentiende eeuw injecteert een oude vrijster in Brighton bonbons met strychnine, in Parijs achtervolgt een zangeres wekenlang haar overspelige minnaar en in New York schiet de echtgenoot van een steenrijke jongedame publiekelijk een architect dood. In Een zaak van liefde daalt Lisa Appignanesi aan de hand van drie rechtszaken af naar de lage driften van de mens, waar duistere passies en lusten kunnen leiden tot gruwelijke misdaden.
Gebruikmakend van rechtbankverslagen, psychiatrische dossiers, brieven en krantenartikelen wekt de auteur in meeslepend proza de belle époque tot leven, een tijd waarin de pers het publiek op niet eerder vertoonde wijze liet meegenieten van scandaleuze intriges, woeste jaloezie en verboden verlangens. Seksuele etiquette en maatschappelijke klasse, eer en een goede naam: dat alles staat op het spel in het theater van de rechtbank.

'Op 16 maar 1914 ging een rijke, goedgeklede blonde vrouw van bijna veertig naar Gastinne-Renette, een winkel voor handvuurwapens, en kocht een browning, een automatisch pistool. Ze probeerde hem uit op de schietbaan in de kelder van de winkel en wist met drie van de zes kogels het doelwit te treffen. Daarna ging ze, gekleed in een formele middagjapon en met haar pistool verstopt in het bont van haar mof...'

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Crime, Mystery, Psychology

480 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2014

About the author

aka Jessica Ayre

Elżbieta Borensztejn was born on 4 January 1946 in Łódź, Poland, the daughter of Hena and Aaron Borensztejn with Jewish origin. Following her birth, her parents moved to Paris, France, and in 1951 they emigrating to Canada. She grew up in the province of Quebec - first in a small Laurentian town, subsequently in Montreal.

She graduated from McGill University with a B.A. degree in 1966 and her M.A. the following year. During 1970-71 she was a staff writer for the Centre for Community Research in New York City and is a former University of Essex lecturer in European Studies. She was a founding member and editorial director of the Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative. Through the eighties she was a Deputy Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK, for whom she also edited the seminal Documents Series and established ICA television and the video Writers in Conversation series.

She produced several made for television films and had written a number of books before devoting herself to writing fulltime in 1990. In recognition of her contribution to literature, Lisa Appignanesi has been honoured with a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. In 2004, she became Deputy President of English PEN and has run its highly successful 'Free Expression is No Offence Campaign' against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. In 2008 she became President of English PEN. She writes for The Guardian, The Independent and has made several series for BBC Radio 4, as well as frequently appearing as a cultural commentator.

In 1967, she married Richard Appignanesi, another writer, with whom she had one son in 1975, Josh Appignanesi, a film director. They divorced in 1984. With her life partner John Forrester, she had a daugther, Katrina Forrester, a Research Fellow in the history of modern political thought at St John's College, Cambridge. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very in depth look at three trials (with a few asides) that center around love and madness. The trials are taken from England, France, and America. Like most of Appignanaesi's work the writing is intelligent and engaging.

I do like the comparsion between the trials, and found it interesting that only one with a man as the killer was used. It was fasniating how many revolve around a woman's virtue.

[Jo-anne Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Brighton in the late Victorian era a spinster is accused of a poisoning spree provoked by a delusion that her doctor is in love with her. In Paris 10 years later a singer shoots her erstwhile rich lover after the death of their child. In the 1900s a multi-millionaire kills his wife's discarded lover. In each case the reasoning behind the crime is linked to madness. This book explores the changing attitudes to insanity as a reason for crime and also plots the understanding of mental instability within the criminal justice system using three infamous trials as main exemplars.

What this book is not is a 'true crime' book, it's far more detailed and complex than that. Appignanesi has tried to look at the changes to the nature and understanding of madness in relation to crimes of passion from a legal and also a psychological perspective. The level of detail and research is superb but it also makes this quite an intellectual book rather than a history or entertainment. I found it a fascinating but not simple read.

[LynnDee (LynnDee's Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read but went way more in-depth than I was expecting. This was not necessarily a bad thing, but I wasn't expecting a psychoanalysis of each crime and the history of insanity and the law when I picked this up, so it was a bit much to get through. Overall, though, I enjoyed the topic.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appignanesi looks at cases in the UK, France and USA where the defendants were driven to crime by the 'love' they had. I don't know what it says about me but I'm familiar with most of the cases discussed here from other reading. This was clear and concise on the subject matter and I found it both entertaining and educational.

[Cindy Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victorian-era spinster Christiana Edmonds was extremely unhappy that her letters weren’t returned by her doctor, Charles Beard. Of course he loved her and would leave his wife, but Beard never did. He simply told Christiana to stop writing. Things stalemated until a rash of poisonings—which resulted in the death of a four-year-old boy—exposed Christiana’s plans to hide her attempted murder of Mrs. Beard by broadcasting handmade poisoned chocolate creams throughout the community. Alas, her handwriting on repeated requests for strychnine and cyanide from the local chemist’s gave her away. She pleaded not guilty and stated Dr. Beard had besmirched her honor, but the “Borgia of Brighton” was sentenced to life in an asylum—not to death by hanging. Her lawyer and the “alienists”—what we’d call today psychologists—had argued that Christiana’s unrequited love had induced a madness that had driven her to this desperate act.

Trials of Passion takes a tantalizing look into landmark cases in the U.K., France and the U.S. during the later-half of the 19th and into the early years of the 20th century that set the standards we recognize today for the legal defense of temporary insanity. Appignanesi shows how these crimes and their trials demonstrate changing gender roles in Western society. The belle époque’s attitude was that women (and some men) were “hysterics” or mentally feeble and suggestible to commit these crimes, but in actuality, these criminals were simply crying out for justice that their culture didn’t address. The poor and downtrodden committed crimes of passion to right wrongs perpetrated on them by the powerful and wealthy who had left them without honor. However, even millionaires such as American Harry Thaw used this psychological defense to justify his shooting of architect Stanford White because White had raped the beautiful model Evelyn Nesbit, who later became Thaw’s wife, when she was but a teenager. Murder had become a “cure for insanity”.

Trials of Passion is a fascinating read for those interested in history, psychology, and the legal profession and how these disciplines came together to create the feminist movement and modern ethics.

[Dean Jobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

How infatuation and obsession can transform respectable, law-abiding people into killers is the ambitious subject of Trials of Passion. Lisa Appignanesi, author of two previous books on madness, uses historic cases from England, France and the United States to explore the social and psychiatric basis for crimes of passion. This is a serious book that takes a deep dive into complex, often contradictory medical and legal thought on insanity and crimes motivated by jealously or revenge. Appignanesi’s storytelling skills and sharp insights, coupled with her command of this challenging material, make this a satisfying read.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

[library]

This was a very interesting book about people who committed murder for "love" in Victorian England, belle epoque France and America at the beginning of the twentieth century. (I have "love" in quotes because several of these people were what we would call stalkers, so it's NOT love.) Appignanesi starts with Christiana Edmunds (whose story is too tangled for a parenthetical aside, but involves poisoned chocolates), goes through a number of French trials, including Gabrielle Bompard (Little Demon in the City of Light), and ends with Harry K. Thaw, who shot Stanford White. Appignanesi is a very good writer and she mostly resists the temptation to overtheorize her material, so it was an enjoyable read.

[Deanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 historic cases from three different countries with commentary on the different ways in which times and the beliefs about sanity affect the verdict.

[Bill Tyroler · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all do crazy things in the name of love, but only some go all the way to violence: how do you separate the criminal from the insane? As Lisa Appignanesi says, “the line between madness and badness becomes becomes increasingly difficult to draw,” but the distinction is fundamental to any properly functioning legal system. She puts notorious cases from Victorian England, La Belle Epoque France, and Gilded Age America on the analyst’s couch in an effort to draw that line. Appignanesi suggests that “romantic love” is fraught with peril, because it fuses two beings into one — what is more threatening to the ego than having it subsumed by another? And, when should someone be punished as bad, or treated as mad?

She might as easily have subtitled her work, “When Love Goes Bad,” because if there’s any connecting thread, that’s about it. In her exemplary cases, someone falls in love, eventually feels shortchanged by the experience, and bad things happen. There’s a steady diet of this on cable, Investigation Discovery — “Scorned: Love Kills”; “Forbidden: Dying for Love”; “Monsters: When Moms Go Bad”; and so on — except that establishing motive isn’t terribly relevant beyond pointing to whodunnit. We’re looking for commeupance, not exoneration on account of fragile ego. As for the current thrust of forensic psychology, that would be in the area of predicting dangerousness, not mitigation. Who needs the bother of an analyst-analysand relationship when you've got the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) to point the way?

This isn't to say that Appignanesi’s cases aren’t of interest. It’s just that little if anything unifies them, and the lessons if any are in the eye of the beholder. As to which: Christiana Edmunds, Marie Biere and Gabrielle Bombard all evaded condign punishment in one form or another because they were dealt with paternalistically. But Harry Thaw got off way too light as well, but that seems to have been on account of deep pockets and limitless resources to mount legal challenges. Maybe that’s the only eternal lesson: money matters, always has, always will.

[David Carniglia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth history and analysis of three Gilded-Age crimes of passion. The stories are well-told; each is of course different in the relationships of murderer/murderess to victim, but there are enough similarities to bind them into one episodic work.

One sees the development of the concept of insanity and how that merges with criminal law. Also the predominant sexism of the time both prejudices the courts against women for not following their 'natural' role in society, while giving them some leeway due to their perceived inability to commit violent acts.

The legal background is essential for grasping why these cases went the way they did, but the romance-novel-gone-wrong narratives make for the more rewarding chapters.

I almost wish the book were much longer so it could've included more cases. It's very involving, even a bit challenging, and thoroughly interesting.

I knew a good deal about Evelyn Nesbit, so her story was more accessible for me, but the English and French cases also draw the reader in to their intricate webs.

Recommended for true crime readers especially for those fascinated with the late-Victorian/Belle Epoque eras.

[AshleyKantorski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting depth look into 3 different trials (with a few asides). The work is intelligent and engaging. The book was more in depth than I expected. I did not expect a thorough psychoanalysis of each woman and case. The book is not a “true crime” book per se, it is more in depth than that. It focuses a lot on the psychological aspect of why these women killed

[Bookwormthings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating historical reportage into the social approach to these crimes.

[Grace Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting read

[Sharon Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting read. A bit too much info at times that made it a bit heavy going but still interesting.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

An in-depth look at the history of judging crimes of passion.
Not light reading !
Can’t say I particularly enjoyed it.

[Susan Krich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting story of three main trials but mostly of how the insanity plea developed.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories but too bogged down in minutiae

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating study of a selection of murder and attempted murder cases from England, France and the US during the latter years of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century. The cases covered are mainly what French law refers to as crimes of passion where people are apparently overcome with passion or jealousy and kill or attempt to kill their rivals or their lovers. The book also shows how differently the subject of madness, temporary or permanent was treated by the courts in these three countries.

The book covers crimes perpetrated by both men and women but it also assesses how differently women were treated by the courts in all three countries and how they are often still treated now. If the women on trial were regarded as conforming to the cultural stereotype of the time and were seen as helpless and feminine but overcome by the power of their emotions they were more likely to be deemed to be temporarily insane and confined for treatment rather than being sent to prison or sentenced to death.

However if women were seen to be too intelligent and self controlled then they were more likely to be found guilty and disapproved of by society. Men, if they were seen to be acting in response to infidelity on the part of their lovers or wives were more likely to be hailed almost heroes by killing their rivals. They were seen as representing the most admired qualities of masculinity and protecting the fortress of their families.

Of course, in spite of all these nuances, money talks and the case described here in which a millionaire kills a former lover of his wife's results in a verdict of temporary insanity and incarceration for a relatively short time in a mental hospital and subsequent release. By most people's standards the murderer was permanently insane, not just temporarily and eventually he was declared insane.

The author certainly knows her subject and has studied it in depth and I found the book fascinating to read though it is quite complex in places. There are notes on the text as well as a bibliography and index.

[Rachael Eyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third of a loose trilogy covering the gamut of human emotion and sanity. While inevitably more uplifting than Mad, Bad and Sad, and grittier than All About Love, it remains a fascinating but unfocused book.

The book uses 3 major cases for its framework : the Christiana Edmunds trial in England (a smitten spinster wanted to bump off her love rival, and wound up poisoning half of Brighton); the Marie Biere case in France (naive young singer shooting the disaffected rake who ruined and abandoned her) and the Thaw trial in the US (disturbed millionaire brutally shooting the man who deflowered his wife). Although these cases are all engrossing, the author over eggs the pudding - on one hand she relays the sometimes dull back and forth in the court and the views of 'alienists' of the time (and since the world of psychiatry was very small in those days, you're quickly suffering from deja vu ); on the other, the cases are wound up too soon, so she's left flailing around to fill the remaining space. I couldn't help wondering if it might have been a more successful book if she'd covered more cases in less detail.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book thinking it was going to be more about the crime-solving sort of aspects, more "true crimey" I guess. But when I re-read the inner flap and paid closer attention to the title, I stopped being disappointed and realized I just needed to pay more attention to the description. Hello! That aside, this author knows how to do her research, as Sherlock would say. She also knows how to write FOR the reader and not "down to" the reader, as sometimes scholars and academics are prone to do when writing pop history (Read: non-academic non fiction haha). She takes a balanced framework spanning three countries and two continents in her writing, as well as successfully interweaving the history of forensic psychology with more current accounts of similar crimes of passion and subsequent trials and psychiatric legalities. All in all, it was a well-researched read, and I am not sure why it took me so long to read it, beyond the usual busyness of life. Side note: I was quite intrigued by her last account, the American case, involving the first supermodel, Evelyn Nesbitt.

[LillyBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. This book was good (but not great) when it was discussing the burgeoning fields of psychiatry and psychology, and what the new experts in those fields thought of love and a woman's sexuality. But it became downright boring when it included excessively long trial transcripts that I felt could have been condensed and still have served their purpose. I felt the amount of medical science suffered from an excess of law.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an insightful look into the crimes of passion in the late 1800s, early 1900s era. It features an interesting look into what was considered insanity. There are cases featured from France, America, and Britain, and it is very interesting to see how the same types of situations were handled by different justice systems. I have heard pretty good things about this author, and, based on this book, I hope to read more by her.

[S.m. Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the title steer you away: This is a brilliant examination of hysteria and its collision with 19th-century legal systems. Less bulky than Appignanesi's "Mad, Bad, and Sad" but just as fascinating.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book couldn't decide which side of the academic line it wanted to be on. It wasn't sensational, or readable, enough to be a pop book. However, it did not have enough analysis to be an academic book. Ultimately, the final case couldn't hold my attention enough for me to finish.

[Stephanie Molnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad, long winded a lot.

[kayepants]

Interesting topic, but way too detailed. Kept falling asleep after a few pages.

[Smiley938]

I got up to page ~100. I might try to finish this book at a later time. It was okay, but not as interesting as I thought it would be. A lot of it was long-winded and the writing was lackluster.

[Charles M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accounts of some of the most notorious murders resulting from love and passion. Book goes into somewhat of a psychoanalysis of these type of crimes, including that of the insanity defense, etc.

[Rebecca Renea · Rating 2 out of 5]

had potential of being a great book. although information is thorough and well documented it reads more like a textbook rather than a captivating true crime book. just not my thing I guess.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well researched and insightful book, not to mention well written.

First we see Christianna Edmunds who was in love with her doctor to whom she wrote very long and passionate letters, though it is unclear as to whether or not he shared her love. In fact at some point he asked her to stop it. As a solution she thought let me poison his wife. That'll make him marry me (lets just say here analysis wasn't sound). She ended up poisoning several other people and killing a young boy. Since she didn't know who would eat her poisoned chocolates she didn't consider herself responsible. It will forever baffle me how she absolved herself of that responsibility in her mind.

Then we see Mary Bière, Mary was naive and believed a man who was obviously no good. She had a daughter by him and when that child died she snapped. Her lover (surprisingly) didn't quite see that coming. This is a prime example of the double standard of the 19th century.

Lastly there was Harry K Thaw, who had money and a famous wife. He could not stand that she had had a lover before she met him and so set out to avenge her. Even when she needed no avenging. His family (especially mommy dearest) wanted him acquitted on grounds of insanity. The spent some time in an asylum for the criminally insane (he was there for good reason) until his family managed to have him declared same. They were sorry they had gotten him out almost instantly.

So these are three main cases and I found them well worth my time.