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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
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Politics & government

SHOOTING VICTORIA

Paul Thomas Murphy

Madness, Mayhem and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy

A history of Victorian England as seen through the numerous assassination attempts on Queen Victoria. During Queen Victoria’s reign, no fewer than eight attempts were made on her life. Murphy follows each would-be assassin and the repercussions of their actions, illuminating daily life in Victorian England, the development of the monarchy under the Queen and the evolution of the attacks in light of evolving social issues and technology.

There was Edward Oxford, a bartender who dreamed of becoming an admiral; hunchbacked John Bean, who dreamed of historical notoriety in a publicized treason trial, and Roderick MacLean, who enabled Vic- toria to successfully strike insanity pleas from Britain’s legal process. Most threatening of all were the “dynamitards” who targeted her Maj- esty’s Golden Jubilee—who signaled the advent of modern terrorism with their publicly focused attack. Shooting Victoria is historical narra- tive at its most thrilling, complete with astute insight into how these attacks actually revitalized the British crown at a time when monarchy was quickly becoming unpopular abroad. After all, as Victoria herself noted, “It is worth being shot at—to see how much one is loved.” Paul Thomas Murphy teaches interdisciplinary writing on Victorian topics at the University of Colorado, is the author of Towards A Working -Class Canon and sits on the board of the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States.

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Book Published 2012-07-01 by Pegasus Books

Comments

A Victoriana expert at the University of Colorado, Murphy recounts in a fresh, lively narrative. Murphy manages to keep the plentiful threads concise yet entertainingly informative, showing readers connections between the failed regicides, their real or imagined motivations, and the monarch who “with unerring instinct and sheer gutsiness, transformed each episode of near-tragedy into one of triumphant renewal for her monarchy".

Part social panorama, part crime thriller, part psychological drama, Shooting Victoria tells the long overlooked story of the seven would-be assassins who sought to destroy the British monarchy but ended up consolidating it. Paul Thomas Murphy’s superb account reaches from the highest echelons of British society down to its criminal underworld and brings a wealth of historical detail vividly into view.

The Day of the Jackal comes to Windsor Castle! Shooting Victoria vividly describes a relay-race of assassins with the Queen Empress in their sights. How did so many of them miss? A lost piece of history placed deftly into the underworld atmosphere of the era.

This is a gripping book -- Mr. Murphy's broad and confident knowledge of the nineteenth century is balanced by his gift for intimate and emotional storytelling.

This book achieves admirably the difficult task of providing a fresh account of the reign of Queen Victoria...a rattling good story, which I found difficult to put down.

Enlightening study of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) and her reign

It’s great fun to see the trail of the author’s research as he includes the politics, crises and sensational crimes that went along with each incident. The pages slip by in this well-written new take on Victoria and her times. Murphy’s detailed rendering sheds entirely new light on the queen’s strengths and her many weaknesses.