THE BEAUCHAMP TRAGEDY

Softcover. This book presents a series of accounts, in a variety of literary forms, of the Beauchamp tragedy. The Beauchamp tragedy was the celebrated case in which a young Kentucky gentleman, to fulfil a vow of revenge imposed upon him by his wife as a condition of their marriage, assassinated the man who had been her lover years before. Beauchamp was apprehended; after a spectacular trial, he was hanged, and his wife committed suicide. This murder so succeeded in capturing the imagination of American writers and the American public that more than a dozen literary works directly based upon it were written from the time of the murder to the 'present'. These works include plays, ballads, and novels. Taken together they provide a rare opportunity to investigate certain basic problems in literary analysis. Chapter headings include : The Newspaper Account; The Autobiography (The Confession of J.O. Beauchamp, 1826); The Folk Ballad; The Play; The Novel. With Appendix, Questions for Study, Selected Bibliog. 154pp. softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With v. sl. shelfwear o/w Vg+