Read all about it! wrongdoing in Spain and England in the long nineteenth century

Tue 30 April 2013 - Mon 23 December 2013

Milstein Exhibition Centre

This exhibition at Cambridge University Library displays some unique chapbooks (cheap pamphlets) and broadsides (early posters) which were the nineteenth-century equivalent of the tabloid press, describing many different acts of wrongdoing in dramatic ways to attract readers. In Spain only about one in five adults could read, so Spanish chapbooks were often in verse, and had a lot of vivid illustrations. In England more than half the population could read, meaning the books published for this audience had more complex texts and fewer pictures - though they were often equally as dramatic.

The exhibition traces the lifecycle of wrongdoing, from highly – and sometimes gruesomely – illustrated books showing children how to behave well, through the consequences of breakdowns in family relationships, to the final retribution for convicted offenders. Characters in the display include bandits, drunkards, drowners, murderous women and numerous other reprobates – not all of whom were brought to justice.

Cost: Free