The New Woman Criminal in British Culture at the Fin De Siècle

FRAMED DIGITALCULTUREBOOKS is a collaborative imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the University of Michigan Library. FRAMED The New Woman Criminal in British Culture at the Fin de Siècle ELIZABETH CAROLYN MILLER The University of Michigan Press AND The University of Michigan Library ANN ARBOR Copyright © 2008 by Elizabeth Carolyn Miller All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press and the University of Michigan Library Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2011 2010 2009 2008 4321 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miller, Elizabeth Carolyn, 1974– Framed : the new woman criminal in British culture at the fin de siècle / Elizabeth Carolyn Miller. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-472-07044-2 (acid-free paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-07044-4 (acid-free paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-472-05044-4 (pbk. : acid-free paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-05044-3 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. Detective and mystery stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—19th century—History and criticism. 3. Female offenders in literature. 4. Terrorism in literature. 5. Consumption (Economics) in literature. 6. Feminism and literature— Great Britain—History—19th century. 7. Literature and society— Great Britain—History—19th century. 8. Detective and mystery films—Great Britain—History and criticism. 9. Women in popular culture—Great Britain—History—19th century. I. Title. PR878.D4M55 2008 823'.087209—dc22 2008015026 ISBN-13 978-0-472-02446-9 (electronic) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS t is the keenest of pleasures to have the opportunity to thank—with all Ithe authority of print—the many people who have helped me write this book. Framed began as my doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and my ‹rst and foremost thanks go to Susan David Bernstein, Caroline Levine, and Rebecca Walkowitz; they have been the most generous and stalwart of mentors, and their support was only beginning on the day I submitted my dissertation. I would also like to thank Anne McClintock and Kelley Conway, who served on my dissertation committee and offered brilliant advice. At Madison, I owe thanks to more people than I could possibly enumerate, but I am especially grateful to Jacques Lezra and Susanne Wofford, for their inspiration and encouragement; to Bob Baker and Joseph Wiesenfarth, for initiating me into the study of Victorian literature; to David Bordwell, whose ‹lm theory class opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about vi- suality; and to Theresa Kelley and Mario Ortiz-Robles. Support from the Department of English helped me complete my dissertation, and Wisconsin’s International Institute provided me with a crucial yearlong fellowship to the University of Warwick, which allowed access to key archival materials in England. Thanks to Jacqueline Labbe for directing my work during my year at Warwick. I wrote most of this book while I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, and I would like to thank the Public Goods Council, Francis X. Blouin, and the Mellon Foundation for the precious time this fellowship gave me. I am eternally grateful to John Kucich, Jonathan Freedman, and Adela Pinch for their expert feedback on my book manuscript, and for their much-appreciated encouragement. I would also like to thank Martha Vicinus for her wise and generous guid- ance, Robert Aguirre for his friendship and advice, and the Nineteenth- Century Forum at Michigan. My colleagues at Ohio University offered friendship and support in the ‹nal stretch of this project. Special thanks to Johnnie Wilcox, for helping me format images for the book, and to Josie Bloom‹eld, Andrew Escobedo, George Hartley, Paul Jones, Joseph McLaughlin, Beth Quitsland, Nicole Reynolds, Catherine Taylor, and Jeremy Webster. The National Endowment for the Humanties seminar “The Oscar Wilde Archive,” held at the Clark Library at UCLA, came as an unexpected boon in the summer of 2007. Thanks to Joe Bristow and my fellow seminar participants, who enriched my understanding of Wilde and indulged my passion for Vera. By the time this book is published, I will have begun a new position at the University of California, Davis, and I would like to thank my new colleagues in the English De- partment for their insights and ideas as I completed the book manuscript. An early version of chapter 2 was published in Victorian Literature and Culture, and some parts of chapter 4 appeared in the Henry James Review. Librarians at a wide range of institutions have offered assistance: thanks especially to the Bodleian Library, the British Film Institute, the British Library, the Colindale Newspaper Library, the Special Collections Li- brary at the University of Michigan, and the Library of Congress. The VICTORIA listserve has provided an online scholarly community and many good leads. I am grateful to everyone at the University of Michi- gan Press, especially Alison MacKeen for her enthusiastic editorial stew- ardship, and Marcia LaBrenz. Numerous friends and colleagues have directly or indirectly helped me ‹nish this book. My friends Laura Vroomen, Lucy Frank, Margaret Ann, and Henry Escudero offered hospitality during various under- funded research trips to England, for which I thank them. Among my graduate school friends, I learned a great deal from Thomas Crofts, Christine Devine, Deirdre Egan, Melissa Huggins, Matt Hussey, Mike LeMahieu, Kristin Matthews, Jack Opel, Elizabeth Rivlin, John Tiede- mann, Janine Tobeck, and Laura Voracek. Rich Hamerla, Cathy Kelly, and Todd Shepard extended their friendship and camaraderie during my year at the University of Oklahoma, as did Michael Alexander, Kathy Gudis, and Ronald Schleifer. Other dear friends to whom I owe thanks include Meredith Alt, Angie and Scott Berkley, Lawrence Daly, Chris vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Frederick, Julie Gardner and Ashley Stockstill, Gretchen Larsen, Laura Larson, Alison O’Byrne, Ji-Hyae Park, Marina Peterson, Jane Poyner, and Jenny Terry. Finally, I come to my family. I owe more than I can say to my par- ents, sisters, and grandparents: Jim and Phyllis Ghiardi, Cathy Miller, Cristina Miller, Frank Miller and Ellen Powers, Rhea Miller, and Sarah Miller and Jon Konrath. Thanks also to Mary and Rich Merlie, Vickie Simpson, Stephanie Beltz, and the Stratton clan. This book is dedicated to Matthew Stratton, whom I met on the ‹rst day of graduate school, and who has challenged and enriched my thinking ever since. I am deeply grateful for his love and companionship (not to mention his many meticulous readings of the following chapters). Acknowledgments vii CONTENTS List of Illustrations xi Introduction 1 PART ONE DETECTIVE SERIES ONE Private and Public Eyes 25 Sherlock Holmes and the Invisible Woman TWO Beautiful For Ever! 70 Cosmetics, Consumerism, L. T. Meade, and Madame Rachel PART TWO CRIME FILM THREE The Limits of the Gaze 103 Class, Gender, and Authority in Early British Cinema PART THREE DYNAMITE NARRATIVE FOUR Dynamite, Interrupted 149 Gender in James’s and Conrad’s Novels of Failed Terror FIVE “An Invitation to Dynamite” 186 Female Revolutionaries in Late-Victorian Dynamite Narrative Afterword 223 Notes 227 Films Cited 253 Works Cited 255 Index 273 ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1. From The Countryman and the Cinematograph (1901) 2 Fig. 2. From The Countryman and the Cinematograph (1901) 3 Fig. 3. From Punch, 19 May 1894, 229 8 Fig. 4. From Punch, 19 May 1894, 231 9 Fig. 5. From Punch, 15 June 1895, 282 9 Fig. 6. From Punch, 8 September 1894, 111 10 Fig. 7. From “Scandal in Bohemia” 24 Fig. 8. From “The Six Napoleons” 36 Fig. 9. From “The Final Problem” 37 Fig. 10. From “Scandal in Bohemia” 43 Fig. 11. From “Scandal in Bohemia” 44 Fig. 12. From “Scandal in Bohemia” 46 Fig. 13. From “Scandal in Bohemia” 52 Fig. 14. From “Charles Augustus Milverton” 63 Fig. 15. From “Charles Augustus Milverton” 65 Fig. 16. From “Charles Augustus Milverton” 68 Fig. 17. From “The Blood-Red Cross” 87 Fig. 18. From Punch, 27 January 1894, 45 90 Fig. 19. From The Film Censor, 14 August 1912, 3 119 Fig. 20. Cover from The Pictures, 24 August 1912 120 Fig. 21. From The Pictures, 20 July 1912, 14 127 Fig. 22. First shot from Women’s Rights (1899) 135 Fig. 23. Second shot from Women’s Rights (1899) 136 Fig. 24. Third shot from Women’s Rights (1899) 137 Fig. 25. Photograph of Emily Davison’s death, captured on ‹lm in The Suffragette Derby of 1913. (Taken from Stanley.) 141 Fig. 26. From “Dynamite and Dynamiters” (120) 153 Fig. 27. From “Dynamite and Dynamiters” (130) 154 Fig. 28. From “Dynamite and Dynamiters” (131) 155 Fig. 29. Cover of program from the New York production of Vera; Or, the Nihilist. (Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA.) 192 Fig. 30. From page two of the program for the New York production of Vera; Or, the Nihilist (Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA.) 193 xii ILLUSTRATIONS INTRODUCTION n 1901, R. W. Paul, one of Britain’s ‹rst ‹lmmakers, released The ICountryman and the Cinematograph, a ‹lm that re›exively “explains” cinema just ‹ve years into this new narrative form. It depicts a countryman at the movies, who mistakes cinematic illusion for real-world phe- nomena: he attempts to dance with a lovely on-screen dancing girl (‹gure 1) and ›ees a ‹lmic train seemingly moving in his direction (‹gure 2).

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