Avoiding real work

[petronia]

Thomas de Quincey, "The Avenger": I shouldn't have bought this because you can read it online, as it turns out, but I wanted to know what happened. So. XD; The translator's note claims this is the first serial killer short story, published three years before "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", and it works as such - you could shoot the Louisa episode exactly as described for a film thriller. Also ANTI-SEMITICISM IS BAD, KIDZ

Going to see Pet Shop Boys tonight! Unwillingness to be productive, urgh. Also does anyone want/need DW invite codes, I have like four.

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

de quincey was fascinated by the ratcliffe highway murders, where two successive households were butchered in 1811 within a fortnight in london's docklands: which may or may not have been a serial killer, as it was never established who did it or why; or even if they were connected; a man was arrested and killed himself in prison while awaiting trial, but as this was before there was even a police force, let alone any kind of systematic detective work, the evidence was chaotic to say the least -- de quincey gives a very unreliable account of the whole affair in his (very entertaining) "on murder"; p.d.james wrote a more scholarly book, "the pear tree and the maul"

i think "the murders in the rue morgue" may also have been inspired by the ratcliffe highway killings: certainly the denouement matches one of the ratcliffe theories in newspapers at the time

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Didn't know that at all - going to read De Quincey's other murder-related stuff now tho, I am on a roll. XD

[maramala.livejournal.com]

I'd like a DW invite, please.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Email? :3

[maramala.livejournal.com]

I sent you a direct message through LJ if it's still good. :)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

The translator? Didn't de Quincey write in English?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

But I found it second-hand in French...