Cara Robertson

Well-written and well-researched, I might just call this the reference work on the trial of Lizzie Borden. In fact, it is so well done that I would also recommend it alone for its historical accuracy on our society of the gilded age of America. It makes one feel part of and understand that time when America was confident, forward looking and innocent of the shape of things to come. The trial is nicely ensconced within this background and at the end, after having heard all the evidence available and reasoning of prosecution and defense alike, one truly wants to read Lizzie’s mind to find out what truly happened that fateful day, and as an additional thought we may wonder if modern forensics could have solved the case.… (mere)

Guilty.

Robertson focuses on how the idea of a young gentlewoman committing a violent murder was recieved in 19th-c America, and how that influenced popular opinion and the outcome of the trial. If some of the trial narrative drags, imagine what it must've been like to actually have to sit in that courtroom. Robertson has done us all the favor of sorting through what must've been thousands of pages of trial transcripts and newspaper articles to distill an engaging narrative that contrasts the ideal of genteel womanhood with the reality of a "nice" woman who may well have (and I think did) murder her family.… (mere)