Classic Crimes by William Roughead (NYRB Classics)
Enjoyable tales of what Orwell once called “our great period of murder,” Roughead’s book covers a gamut of crimes (all of them murder, often with some other crimes too) in Scotland.
He does do with a dry wit and an eye for the facts, and isn’t shy of pointing out when people erred in their speeches or investigations. Sometimes it’s a little easy to get lost in the woods of particularly tricky crimes - I’m thinking of the Ardlamont murder - but overall it’s an enjoyable read, and I recommend it to true crime buffs.
It’s especially interesting to read about the ways trials went back in these days. The earliest ones here would run in one long session, taking days at a time, and lawyers would fortify themselves with a drink or two. Later, even, there wasn’t a court of appeal: in one case, where the police railroaded an innocent man, Roughead notes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took an interest and managed to get an inquiry: a closed-door session where nobody was under oath, and new evidence wasn’t allowed. The poor, innocent convict remained in jail afterwards.
A note too: Roughead is a fun stylist, a natural storyteller who quotes at length from speeches and knows how to tell a good yarn. It’s not, say, Helter Skelter or The Journalist and the Murder, but it’s a good true crime book and anyone who enjoyed that Orwell essay will dig this.
John Aubrey, My Own Life by Ruth Scurr (NYRB)
Taken from various manuscripts, Ruth Scurr has created the diary that Aubrey never wrote. Jottings, recollections, notes… they’re all here, as are his battles with creditors and family.
Aubrey, best remembered now for his Brief Lives, was a compiler and amateur historian. He took down gossip and rumour with just as much enthusiasm as he did hard facts. In this biography, he shines through as a guy who loved learning, hated war and was generally open minded. He lived through the civil war, the great fire of London and through civil strife. They’re all here, although he’s admittedly not a chronicler of the caliber of Pepys or Josef Pla, for example.
The way Scurr compiled this book, and the obvious care and effort at work, make this one an interesting read from a guy who was curious, learned and well-connected. It’s full of name-dropping (he rubbed shoulders with everyone from Newton to Hobbes to Pepys), and his trips around to visit ruins, water-springs and stone monuments are enjoyable reading. His sketches, which are sometimes included (not always, though) are a nice touch, and the guy had some skill.
I enjoyed this book, a fun and breezy trip through the life of the man Scurr calls “England’s Collector”. It’s a great experiment in biography, well researched and annotated, and capped by essays by Scurr that help put him in context. Recommended.
Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts (Viking)
Huge, imposing volume on a gigantic life. Well researched- over 100 pages of notes and bibliography- and kept me interested even as Napoleon’s life spiralled out of control. I liked it a bunch.
What it does best is make a case for Napoleon as less of a tyrant and something of an enlightenment reformer who paved roads, simplified law codes and spread culture. He was definitely an interesting statesman and something of a learned man (his classical readings were widespread) but yes, he was also a military man through and through.
When Roberts deals with the battles, he likes to bring up the concept of unforced errors (tennis as war??) and takes pains to point out the small decisions that leads to Napoleon’s downfall. But he also stresses the advantages and military ideas that caused Napoleon to be such a successful military leader. I will admit, the sheer amount of people commanded (let alone killed) throughout these campaigns is mind boggling.
The book loses a little steam near the end, but so to did Napoleon - I wouldn’t have minded a little more on the Waterloo and Dresden battles - but at over 800 pages, maybe what I’m asking for was a two volume book. And since this aims to be the definitive one volume book, some sections have to be trimmed down a little.
Overall, I enjoyed this and spent most of a vacation reading it. I think anyone interested in this man, or this period of history, would be well served by it. More casual readers, I think, will find themselves a tad overwhelmed by all the details.
Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work by Melissa Gira Grant (Verso)
A remarkable little book about the politics and power around sex work - and make no mistake, it is work like any other job - that goes into the misconceptions, the ways it’s policed (by more than just the cops) and offers a way forward for “legitimizing” sex work. It touches on the way people take it on themselves to police this industry, often through vigilante tactics, and the ways the culture around it works, be it the way it stigmatizes women, the way a dungeon operates or the debates around sex work.
Drawbacks: It’s a little dated: Sesta-Fosta has gutted the online industry, and places like Backpage or Craigslist all but don’t exist any longer. And it’s a little journalistic in tone, reaching like a series of magazine essays collected in book form.
Overall, however, it’s a slim, worthwhile read, that’s enlightening about this industry, the controversies in and surrounding it, and it’s short enough you can read it in a day or two. Recommended.