Just Finished Reading: On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts by Thomas De Quincey (FP: 1827) [56pp] 

Consisting of a ‘letter to the editor’ followed by the transcript of a lecture given to a secretive organisation, this was a moderately amusing satire of the crime reporting of the era. The (slightly) later Victorians were notorious for their fascination with crime – and especially murder – so it's easy to imagine that the late Regency period where likewise fascinated with the darker side of daily life. With the plethora of newspapers and weekly magazines competing for attention the slide towards scandal and sensation was, no doubt, irresistible. The old news adage of ‘if it bleeds it leads’ helped to fill the front pages with dastardly crimes but, the author maintains, what about style? Of course, the lower classes can slice and dice each other to their hearts content, but what about art, display, panache? 

Elevating crime, and especially murder, to the level of art seems to anticipate some of the modern Serial killers – especially those with more media savvy. Did such ideas influence future murderers, both in fact and fiction (especially fiction I think), and especially those who seemed to ‘play’ with the police and even play TO the public? Surely some crimes, especially the more notorious ones throughout the modern age are, at least in part, acts of performance art... It's something to ponder on and it's something I certainly did ponder (can you tell?) after reading this intriguing little item. I think I might pick up the authors far more famous work ‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ if I come across it in my travels. I wonder what thoughts and ideas THAT might generate? Reasonable and thought provoking.      

Part of the Penguin Little Black Classics series. More to come.