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Redefining the Newgate Novel http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/ Research Commons at the University of Waikato Copyright Statement: The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). The thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person. Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate. You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the thesis. ‘The Remorseless Fangs of the Law’: The Newgate Novel, 1722-2012 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at The University of Waikato by Larissa Schumacher 2013 iii Abstract The Newgate novel is a fascinating sub-genre of crime fiction which emerged in the 1830s as a response to contemporary issues within the social, legal and penal systems of Victorian London. This thesis is split into four distinct Parts which, using both critical research and original interventions, summarise developments in the Newgate novel from 1722-2012. The introductory section provides a foundation to this thesis by looking at the most significant contributors to the rise of the Newgate novel: genre, historical context, and the Newgate Calendar . The influences of Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and William Godwin’s works are then analysed, as are their similarities to the Newgate school. Consequently, this thesis analyses whether or not they may be termed Newgate novels in their own right. The literature of the 1830s forms the core of my thesis, with the focus on works by the most popular Newgate novelists: Edward Bulwer-Lytton and William Ainsworth. Using examples from these authors this thesis establishes a comprehensive definition of what a Newgate novel is — focusing on the uses of sympathy, sensation and social protest — before moving on to look at William Thackeray’s anti-Newgate novel, Catherine . The thesis finishes by redefining the boundaries of the Newgate novel. Using Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist as a springboard, the thesis looks at the twenty-first-century works of Bernard Cornwell and Deborah Challinor to further stretch the definition of a Newgate novel; also suggesting that a sub-genre of the Newgate novel exists in the form of the transportation novel. iv Acknowledgements Firstly, to Dr Kirstine Moffat and Dr Mark Houlahan for being the most supportive and enthusiastic supervisors a Masters student could ever hope for. Thank you both for joining me on this discovery of the Newgate novel; I hope you have enjoyed it as thoroughly as I have. To our administrator and my good friend Hannah Wright: thank you for your continual compassion and companionship, and your endless patience as I pass over my USB stick. You truly are the best! To my graduate partner-in-crime, Kimberley Modlik: together we have ridden the roller-coaster that is a Masters thesis, and I thank you dearly for being there with me through all the ups and downs; for the hugs, the cheesecake and all the late nights that we have shared together, I thank you. I could never have done this without you! To the wider English department, to the staff, the graduate students and the wonderful students who I have taught over the year: thank you for listening patiently to my weird and wonderful tales of crime and criminals; your company and support has made this year all the more enjoyable. Thank you to the University of Waikato and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for the various scholarships that I have received this year. Your financial v assistance has been paramount to the success of this thesis and is greatly appreciated. To all my good friends, thank you for giving me a reason to look forward to Mondays! Thank you for all the good memories, and above all for keeping me sane! To my wonderful parents Phil and Jo Schumacher: who would have guessed twenty two years ago that this is where we would be now?! Thank you so much for the love and support you have given me over the years. I am so glad to have made you proud. Lastly, to my incredible partner Kerry Arts: what would I have done without you?! Thank you for being there every moment of every day, for the hugs, the kisses, the enduring support and, most of all, for teaching me that I am human and that is okay. Only dreams now! For those of you who sympathised with me as my sympathy was devoted to others ix Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................ ix List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................ x Preface ................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3 Part 1: The Rise of the Newgate Novel .................................................................. 7 The Newgate Novel and Genre ................................................................................ 7 Historical Context ................................................................................................... 14 The Newgate Calendar ........................................................................................... 24 Part 2: The Newgate Novel in the Eighteenth Century ......................................... 33 The Newgate Calendar and Eighteenth-Century Fiction ........................................ 33 The Purposes of a Newgate Novel ......................................................................... 39 Sympathy for the Criminal ...................................................................................... 61 Part 3: The Newgate Novel in the 1830s .............................................................. 65 The Newgate Calendar and the 1830s ................................................................... 66 Author’s Purpose: Sensation .................................................................................. 72 Author’s Purpose: Sympathy .................................................................................. 83 Author’s Purpose: Protest ...................................................................................... 98 Anti-Newgate: Courvoisier and Thackeray’s Catherine ........................................ 108 Part 4: Redefining the Newgate Novel .............................................................. 117 Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist .............................................................................. 118 Bernard Cornwell’s Gallows Thief ........................................................................ 130 Deborah Challinor’s Behind the Sun ..................................................................... 138 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 149 Bibliography .................................................................................................... 159 Appendix A ...................................................................................................... 167 Appendix A.i —The Newgate Calendar : Jack Sheppard ....................................... 167 Appendix A.ii —The Newgate Calendar : Jonathan Wild ...................................... 193 Appendix A.iii —The Newgate Calendar : Eugene Aram....................................... 221 x List of Abbreviations All references will be to these editions. BS Challinor, Deborah, Behind the Sun (Sydney: HarperCollins, 2012) C Thackeray, William Makepeace, Catherine: A Story (Teddington, Middlesex: Echo Library, 2008) CW Godwin, William, Caleb Williams , ed. by Gary Handwerk and A. A. Markley (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2000) EA Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, Eugene Aram (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2008) GT Cornwell, Bernard, Gallows Thief (London: HarperCollins, 2002) JS Ainsworth, William, Jack Sheppard (London: Penguin, 2010) JW Fielding, Henry, The Life of Jonathan Wild the Great , ed. by David Nokes (Middlesex: Penguin, 1982) JW (DD) Defoe, Daniel, The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild , in The Life of Jonathan Wild The Great , by Henry Fielding, ed. by David Nokes (Middlesex: Penguin, 1982), pp. 221-257 MF Defoe, Daniel, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders , ed. by G. A. Starr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) xi NC Pelham, Camden, The Chronicles of Crime; or The New Newgate Calendar (London: Thomas Tegg, 1841) OT Dickens, Charles, Oliver Twist , ed. by Ella Westland (London: Wordsworth, 2000) PC Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, Paul Clifford (London: Penguin, 2010) 1 Preface In central London there is a small horseshoe-shaped street named Amen Court; ‘“Amen”, one might assume, as it once marked the end of the line’: At the back of this quiet tree-lined court, a small playground has been built in the ivy-latticed shadow of a massive stone wall, the sombre countenance of which rises
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