The London Monster

出版者:Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

作者:Bondeson, Jan

页数:256

出版时间:2000-10

价格:$ 45.14

装帧:HRD

isbn号码:9780812235760

具体描述

A century before Jack the Ripper haunted the streets of London, another predator held sway. In the late eighteenth century, the city was gripped by fear, outrage, and Monster Mania. A psychopath who had lashed out violently at over fifty women during a two-year crime spree roamed the city. After stalking and verbally harassing his unsuspecting victims, the Monster would assault them with blades shrewdly crafted for his methods of attack. Sometimes he jabbed his victims squarely in the hips and buttocks. Some he kicked in the backside with knives fastened to his knee. Others he invited to smell an artificial nosegay, only to stab the fine lady right in the nose with a sharp spike hidden within the flowers. The details of these encounters--the bloodshed, the women's ripped clothing, the dark figure calmly observing his victim's screams of anguish before disappearing down the closest alley seconds before help arrived--became deeply ingrained in London's collective psyche. After an immense reward was offered for the capture of the perpetrator by the wealthy philanthropist John Julius Angerstein, one of the founders of Lloyd's, the public's excitement rose. Armed vigilantes patrolling the streets only added to the mayhem, and newspaper reports of each attack roused even greater panic. Fashionable ladies did not dare walk outdoors without copper pans over their petticoats to protect them against the Monster's rapier. And still, the attacks continued. Finally in June 1790, an ungainly young Welshman named Rhynwick Williams, who worked in a factory for artificial flowers, was arrested as the London Monster. He appeared an unlikely Monster, with a reasonable alibi for one of the worstattacks. But after two long, ludicrous trials, where he was defended energetically by the eccentric Irish poet, Theophilus Swift, Williams was convicted. Was Rhynwick Williams guilty after all? Or was he unlucky enough to fall into the hands of authorities when they needed someone, anyone, to pay for the Monster's peculiar crimes? Was there even a Monster at all? Considerable doubt has been cast. In "The London Monster," Jan Bondeson writes a lively, detailed account of one of London's most notorious sons and assesses evidence for the guilt or innocence of the convicted Williams. He presents a wealth of contemporary evidence from learned and popular sources, as well as research on mass hysterias and moral panics, to reinterpret Monster Mania and compare it to historical and modern instances of similar phenomena. Indeed, in the magnitude of public frenzy it incited, the story of the London Monster bears similarities to the Ripper murders in 1888; in its stature as urban legend, it is of the bogeyman tradition of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. As Bondeson reveals, the London Monster occupies a unique space in London's criminal history and imagination, somewhere between fact and fiction.

用户评价

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我很少读到一部作品能如此出色地平衡哥特式恐怖的氛围与扎实的社会批判。这本书的魅力在于它的多层次性。如果你只把它看作一部追捕连环杀手的惊悚小说，那你就错过了它最精华的部分。它像剥洋葱一样，一层层揭开维多利亚伦敦光鲜外表下的腐败、对女性的压迫以及科学与迷信的边界模糊地带。那些对社会边缘人群的描写，如妓女、流浪汉、精神病患者，都处理得极其富有同情心，但绝不滥情。作者用冷峻的笔触，刻画出他们在那个时代生存的艰难和内心的绝望。读到某些情节时，我甚至能感受到一种强烈的历史的重量感，仿佛自己真的成为了那个时代的一份子，目睹着人性的光辉与阴暗的交锋。这本书的结尾处理得非常高明，它没有给出任何廉价的安慰或简单的正义伸张，而是留下了一个深刻的、关于“我们如何定义怪物”的哲学拷问。

说实话，一开始我有点担心这本书会过于沉闷，毕竟涉及的年代背景比较老旧，但事实证明，我的顾虑完全是多余的。叙事的活力简直是爆炸性的！作者仿佛拥有某种魔力，能将历史的尘埃瞬间点燃，让那些陈旧的档案和街头传闻变得鲜活无比，仿佛就在你耳边低语。最让我印象深刻的是它对于“信息不对称”的巧妙运用。你总是比主角知道得多一点，但又在关键时刻被误导，这种体验非常刺激。每一次我以为抓住了那个“伦敦怪兽”的尾巴，结果发现那只是一个烟雾弹，指向了更深层的阴谋。文风上，它时而像冷静的侦探报告，详实精准，时而又像一个疯子在忏悔，充满了狂热的情绪，这种强烈的反差使得阅读体验极其丰富。我常常需要停下来，喝口水，理清思绪，因为情节的复杂度和人物关系的交织程度，远超一般的推理小说。这本书绝对是献给那些喜爱深度、热爱被挑战思维的读者的上乘之作。

这本小说的结构简直是建筑学上的奇迹。它不是一条直线叙事，更像是一个不断自我嵌套的俄罗斯套娃。不同的时间线、不同的叙述视角（日记、信件、官方记录、民间传说）交错并行，但作者却能奇迹般地将所有的线索都导向一个逻辑自洽的终点。我必须赞扬其对细节的痴迷程度，无论是对特定历史事件的引用，还是对当时医疗技术的描绘，都显示出作者做了海量的功课，并且是将这些知识“融化”在了故事肌理之中，而非生硬地堆砌。阅读过程需要高度的集中力，因为它充满了隐喻和伏笔，你必须时刻保持警惕，注意那些看似无关紧要的对话或场景，因为它们很可能在后半部分爆发出惊人的力量。对于那些喜欢“自己动手解谜”的读者来说，这本书提供了绝佳的素材，我甚至忍不住在笔记本上画了人物关系图谱来试图理清头绪！

读完《伦敦怪兽》，我感觉自己像刚刚跑完了一场马拉松，精疲力竭，但精神上却得到了极大的满足。这本书的语言风格就像是经过精心调配的烈酒，初尝可能辛辣，但回味无穷。它有一种古典的庄重感，但又不断被现代的、近乎荒诞的惊悚元素所打断，形成了极具张力的阅读体验。特别要提的是，这本书成功地颠覆了我对传统“英雄”形象的认知。主角并非传统意义上的无暇白玉雕琢，他自身的缺陷和偏执，反而成了推动他探索真相的关键动力，这使得人物形象更加立体和真实可信。它迫使你去思考，在追逐“正义”的道路上，我们愿意付出多大的代价，以及我们自己是否也会成为另一种意义上的“怪兽”。这是一本值得反复品读、值得深入研究的文学作品，它远远超越了类型小说的范畴，达到了令人敬畏的艺术高度。