1st Edition

Drunks, Whores and Idle Apprentices Criminal Biographies of the Eighteenth Century

By Philip Rawlings Copyright 1992
    236 Pages
    by Routledge

    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    Criminal biographies enjoyed enormous popularity in the Eighteenth Century: today they offer us some fascinating perspectives on the period. Drunks, Whores and Idle Apprentices is the first book to reproduce a number of these biographies in full.
    Not only do these biographies make fascinating reading, they also raise the problem of how to read them as historical documents. The author argues that instead of trying to uncover simple themes, the most revealing thing about them is the tensions around which they were constructed.

    I The History of…John Sheppard (1724), II The Life and Actions of James Dalton (1730), III The Ordinary of Newgate’s Account: Mary Young (1741), IV The Discoveries of John Poulter (1753–4), V The Life, Travels, Exploits, Frauds and Robberies of Charles Speckman (1763)

    Biography

    Philip Rawlings (Author)