Word crimes : blasphemy, culture and literature in nineteenth-century England / Joss Marsh.

Chicago; London: Univ of Chicago Pr, 1998.

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Blasphemy -- History.

Law and literature -- History.

Social history.

Chapter one. Blasphemy, 1817-30: 1. You know me know, the arch blasphemer: the three trials of William Hone

2. Three epilogues

3. Carlile, the volunteers, and the 'Age of Reason' struggle

Chapter two. Trials of the 1840s: 1. Knowledge is power,or, The cheap press as blasphemy

2. The Moxon case and the growth of the poet's income

3. Jacob Holyoake and other "Priests" of the 'Oracle'

Chapter three. England, 1883: 1. The "Celebrated case" of G W Foote and the 'Freethinker'

2. Two codas

Chapter four. Literature and dogma: 1. Bibliolatry and Bible-smashing

2. The Heretic Trope of the book

3. Literary law and the authority of literature

4. When "literary difference" became a "criminal offence"

Chapter five. Words, words, words: 1. Mr Foote's trial for obscenity

2. Victorian euphemism and the fear of language

3. The systematization of silence

4. Jacob Holyoake, Master of Sentences

5. The Victorian crisis of language

Chapter six. Hardy's crime: 1. Committing literary blasphemy

2. Get it done and let them howl

3. Hardy the degenerate, Pooley the obscure

4. Modern words, modern crimes.

Includes biblliography and index.

Word crimes.

0226506916

xii, 431 p.