Download or read book Masculinity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature written by E. Godfrey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-12-03 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, this book considers crime fighting from the perspective of the civilian city-goer, from the mid-Victorian garotting panics to 1914. It charts the shift from the use of body armour to the adoption of exotic martial arts through the works of popular playwrights and novelists, examining changing ideals of urban, middle-class heroism.