Violette Noziere: A Story of Murder in 1930s Paris Hardcover - 2011 - 1st Edition

"Sarah Maza has written a vivid, gripping and clear-eyed account of the celebrated Violette Nozire case, which captivated French society in the 1930s. A bold and imaginative story, Violette Nozire opens an unexpected and revealing window onto interwar Parisian life." -- Colin Jones, author of Paris: Biography of a City

"Sarah Maza's absorbing new book on Violette Nozire--flapper, fantasist, and perpetrator of one of the most sordid and sensational French homicides of the 1930s--is a scholarly 'true crime' tale of the most intelligent sort. Why might a seemingly respectable little mademoiselle from a 'nice' bourgeois family want to poison her maman et papa at the breakfast table? Alongside her riveting account of the crime and its aftermath, Maza investigates the various pathologies--familial, social, economic, cultural, psychosexual--that may have figured in the mayhem. (At her trial Nozire claimed, among other things, that her father had sexually abused her for years.) The result is both a fascinating case history--Greek tragedy rewritten as seedy policier--and a chilling glimpse into the less salubrious aspects of French lower middle-class life between the wars." -- Terry Castle, author of The Professor

"One of those rare and sophisticated works that tells a gripping story while evoking a complex historical period. There exist very few cultural histories of the interwar years."--Carolyn Dean, author of Aversion and Erasure: The Fate of the Victim after the Holocaust

"Sarah Maza's book tells an arresting story that deftly combines conventional social history with a subtle analysis of gender and culture. Using all the arts of the best storytellers, she is careful not to give too much away, and it is only with time and a remarkable conclusion that we realize that Violette Nozire is no ordinary tale." -- Ruth Harris, author of Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century