The Case of Madeleine Smith

The story of a young woman and a man in his thirties, who apparently always has gotten burned in love....Madeleine writes Emile L'Anglier at least 198 letters in 2 years (he keeps them - none of his to her are found, except some drafts he kept)...theirs must be a secret love, as her architect father hates him (because he's just a clerk) and will never approve of their marriage. Madeleine manages to keep him on a string with her provocative words, insisting that she loves only him...however, she becomes engaged to a man her father approves of and wants her letters and likeness returned to her. Laid out in this simple format, it's plain to see that this is the story of many, many women and men...believing in someone they love, who tells them what they want to hear - but who is meanwhile actually behaving in a completely unloving, self-centered manner. When the person does look at the behavior, the manipulator sweet talks them back to where he/she wants them to stay - on the back burner, just in case, and hopelessly in love with them. L'Anglier is so in love (or is he just being stubborn?) that he believes that showing the letters to her father, will end her relationship with her new fiance...this frightens Madeleine because she will lose her wealthy fiance, and she believes, the support of her family...which is obviously more important to her than her great love for L'Anglier. She becomes desperate. Although she tells him she is engaged to another and wants all her letters back, she continues to write him passionate notes so that he will meet with her, and drink the hot chocolate she offers him - although he knows he gets sick every time he drinks it. Madeleine has purchased arsenic in two different places, on three separate occasions, giving her reason as to eliminate rats and vermin. But when she is arrested for L'Anglier's murder (enough arsenic found in his body to kill 40 men), she tells the police something different - it's to make up a wash to beautify her hands, arms and face. Because of her calm and poised demeanor, she fascinates the public, and Geary certainly draws her as always looking quite under control. The type of person who could easily get rid of someone who tried to thwart her plans. Unlike other true crime, I will remember this book for its drawings as well as the writing.

This book is a lot of fun to read and has great illustrations. I am looking forward to getting another from the series.

Geary does what might be called documentary graphic novels, the best known of which is his series of true crime stories. This one is set in Glasgow in the late 1850s and involves an overly-romantic young gentleman and the young-ish daughter of a prominent architect who carry on a clandestine love affair -- until Madeleine gets tired of the whole thing, takes up with a man her father approves of, and then has to keep her paramour from outing her. Enter arsenic. The ex-boyfriend dies in great pain, the government brings murder charges, and a trial ensues. Even though their styles are nothing at all alike, Geary always reminds me of Edward Gorey -- the sly depiction of violence, the sense of inevitability, the decorous text. This is great stuff.

This book is a graphic-novel overview of a murder case that gripped the attention of mid-nineteenth-century Britain: Did Madeleine Smith, Glasgow socialite, poison her inconvenient lover, Pierre L'Anglier, or didn't she? Geary does not come down on the side of innocence or guilt; he presents the facts of the case, in his own inimitable drawing style, and lets the reader come to his or her own conclusions. I would say that the clue to innocence or guilt is there, but you have to be paying attention to see it---and I won't spoil the book for others by pointing it out. It's just one small fact that can't be explained otherwise. This book's recommended for anybody interested in the case, or in true crime or classic crime in general. About the only reason I didn't give it five stars is that Geary apparently swallowed the story of Madeleine living her old age out in New York City out whole, without checking it out. It could be, but it also might not be, the truth---and without digging the corpse in question up and checking its DNA with known relatives of Smith, there's no way to know.