First published 2018
Davis explores how American fiction writers between 1798 and 1860 depicted murder and violence in their stories. He analyzes works by Cooper, Hawthorne, Irving, and Poe alongside popular novels that scholars typically overlook. Davis argues that these fictional portrayals reveal changing American attitudes about guilt, moral responsibility, and criminal behavior. The book examines how writers treated dueling, lynching, revenge killings, and capital punishment in their narratives. Davis connects the psychological assumptions these authors made about their characters to broader social and intellectual movements of the era. The study demonstrates how fiction both reflected contemporary social problems and shaped public opinion about crime and justice. This analysis offers readers insight into early American values through the lens of literary violence.
Genres: fiction, literary-criticism, american-fiction, historical-fiction, american, crime, 19th-century, academic
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: psychological-thriller
Setting: America
Period: 1798-1860
366 pages · Paperback · Cornell University Press
Content warnings: violence