I was browsing the internet a while back, reading about serial killers, as y'do, when I came across the Scottish "Bible John." In his article was
a little paragraph discussing other Scottish killers. Among
them was Madeleine Smith, who possibly (almost definitely) poisoned her
ex-fiancé with arsenic in 1857 after he threatened to expose the letters she had written
to him. According to the article, the letters, "when read aloud, caused a
scandal in the Victorian courtroom."
How do you not then look those up?
After quite a bit of questing, but with my end goal in sight (i.e. pervy letters), I found them on a Harvard archive, located here. There are 149 of them, and DISAPPOINTMENT, very little raciness. Damn you, Victorians, and your easily shocked sensibilities.
What I found from wading through almost all of the letters - for I will put up with much to read Victorians writing about sex - was that the sentiment was overly effusive and generally disgusting. I …
How do you not then look those up?
After quite a bit of questing, but with my end goal in sight (i.e. pervy letters), I found them on a Harvard archive, located here. There are 149 of them, and DISAPPOINTMENT, very little raciness. Damn you, Victorians, and your easily shocked sensibilities.
What I found from wading through almost all of the letters - for I will put up with much to read Victorians writing about sex - was that the sentiment was overly effusive and generally disgusting. I …