Trials of Passion: Crimes Committed in the Name of Love and Madness

Crimes of passion have a long and fascinating history, and Appignanesi (Mad, Bad, Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to Present) is particularly adept at the colorful, and cerebral, examination of three such crimes committed between 1870 and 1914. First is England’s Christina Edmunds, whose obsession with Dr. Charles Beard leads her to try fatally poisoning Beard’s wife and others with chocolate creams. The acquittal in France of concert singer Marie Bière, who stalked and shot her lover, was a step forward for women, making it “permissible for women to... act violently... to protect or avenge their honor.” And millionaire Henry Kendall Thaw’s notorious 1906 revenge killing of American architect Stanford White, following White’s affair with Thaw’s wife, was front-page fodder. Leaving no stone unturned, Appignanesi details the actions of psychiatrists, courts, and the press amid allegations of “hysteria,” stalking, affairs, obsession, “love-madness” (nymphomania), and children born out of wedlock. The factual material—court transcripts, asylum records, lovers’ letters, and “hint and smear” news accounts—is vast and historically resonant. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.). (July)