‘Shadows of Remorse’: Guilt and Murder in Ada the Betrayed

Abstract

This essay discusses the depiction of violence and remorse in the popular penny serial Ada the Betrayed (1842-3) – the first serial written by James Malcolm Rymer, who would later write the more famous serials Varney the Vampire (1845-7) and The String of Pearls (1846-7). It briefly discusses the rise of penny crime fiction in the 1830s, and the depiction of violence and trauma in the penny serials published in the years immediately preceding Ada, such as Oliver Twiss (1838-9), Ela, the Outcast (1839-41), and The Maniac Father (1842). It then explores how Ada moved away from these in its treatment of the psychology of violence, responding to the moral panic over crime fiction that followed the murder of Lord Russell in 1840, and the role played by the serial in popularising the figure of the remorseful murderer in the popular literary culture of the early Victorian period.