Mad or Bad? The Life and Exploits of Amy Bock, 1859-1943

by Coleman, Jenny

• ISBN13: 9781877372711
• ISBN10: 1877372714
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Otago University Press

Summary

Amy Bock's life has been the inspiration for plays, books, a TV programme, music, poems, an exhibition and more, but Mad or Bad? is the first comprehensive biography. And while Amy gained notoriety as a daring, duplicitous and talked-about con artist who impersonated a man and married an unsuspecting woman, in this book the author shows how her story was not a straightforward case of fraud and misrepresentation. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Jenny Coleman is currently Programme Coordinator for the Woman's Studies Programme at Massey University and was Coordinating Editor for the Woman's Studies Journal, 2004 to 2009. Her research interests are in nineteenth-century women's history and feminist biography.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. 7
Maps	p. 9
Amy Bock's Family	p. 14
Prologue: Telling Tales: The Con Artist and the Biographer	p. 11
Convicts, Criminals and Artists: 'It is in my blood'	p. 17
Inherited 'Peculiarities' From Here Mother	p. 37
'So I beg of you to excuse all errors this time'	p. 57
A Perfect Mania For What She Calls 'Shopping'	p. 91
There was a Great Deal of Method in Her Madness	p. 125
Unique In Colonial Criminology	p. 169
The Case of the Female Bridegroom	p. 193
A Startling Denouement	p. 233
Declared an Habitual Criminal	p. 267
Epilogue: Mad or Bad?	p. 313
Appendix	p. 328
Abbreviations	p. 340
Notes	p. 341
Bibliography	p. 361
Index	p. 375
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