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Murder She Wrote? The Real and Imagined Letters of Mary Blandy

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 13; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09699080500436117

1747-5848

Clare Brant,

Autobiographical and Biographical Writing

In 1752 Mary Blandy was convicted of parricide and hanged. The case turned on a single letter from her to her lover, which was used by both the prosecution and defence to establish character and motive. The author analyses contradictory readings of this letter in the light of eighteenth century arguments about the nature of evidence on and off the page, to which letters contributed in particular ways as both textual and material objects. The author also analyses letters written in response to the case, by Blandy and by others, to explore constructions of femininity, and to argue for the significance of letter-reading cultures in critical models of epistolarity.