Besprechungen / Reviews 191 in der Unterschrift des Briefes vom 28. Dezember 1852 «Euer Theodor und Pipe» (45) fiel auf. «Pipe» (auch «Lute») war der Kosename der Tochter Lucie (1860-1935), die also 1852 noch nicht gemeint gewesen sein konnte. Seine ebenfalls Lucie geheißene Mutter wird der Dichter wohl eher nicht als «Pipe» bezeichnet haben, da er im folgenden Brief von ihr respektvoller als «Mutter» schreibt. Zu bedauern ist, daß der Edition kein Sachregister beigegeben ist. Theodor Storm bittet seine Frau einmal: «Sorge doch recht dafür, daß kein Fetzen von unseren Briefschaften verloren geht» (331). Sie mögen Aktenwert gehabt haben oder familiengeschichtlich wichtig gewesen sein oder noch sein, aber welcher wissenschaftlich Interessierte wird wohl das ganze Buch lesen wollen, um eine ihm vielleicht wichtige Einzelheit zwischen Seiten sehr privater Familienangelegen-heiten zu suchen. Erheitern könnte ihn dabei vielleicht Storms intime Klage aus Heiligenstadt über die gute alte Zeit: «Wenn hier nur nicht so viele Flöhe wären; die unzählichen Stiche auf meinen Beinen beginnen allgemach sich zu entzünden» (102). Also vielleicht doch: Viel Spaß beim Lesen. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign U. Henry Gerlach S USANNE K ORD : Murderesses in German Writing, 1720-1860: Heroines of Horror. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. 276 pp. $ 90. Susanne Kord’s highly interesting book looks at, as the title of the first chapter states, «Criminal women: on bodies, paradoxes, performances and tales.» She makes effective use of feminist, social, and literary theories especially from the fields of anthropology, social history and psychology to ask new questions of the extant discourses dealing with murderesses. She examines such paradoxes as the fact that women were posited as being biologically predestined for crime at the same time as the exact opposite was asserted. She recognizes that «To think about criminal women means to consider them empirically - their crimes and punishments - in the context of the ubiquitous discourse on crime and its gender» (10-11). The first chapter outlines her theoretical assumptions and modus operandi. Each of the next five chapters focuses on a different kind of murderess - witches, vampires, husband-killer, child-killers and poisoners. Each chapter lays out the sociocultural context for the crime, then delves into one or two historical case studies, all the while recognizing that crime narratives of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made little distinction between legal and literary genres. After zooming in on the case studies, Kord then opens her discussion to texts which use this type of murderess. For example, in the chapter on vampires, she describes the explosion of reports on vampires in the eighteenth century, asks how to explain the outbreak of a vampire epidemic in the Age of Reason, and advances some answers to this question. She then continues to look at the female vampire using feminist theories of mirror images. Her case study here looks at Elizabeth Báthory, the historical woman who entered legend as «Countess Dracula,» and Kord debunks the two most titillating aspects of Báthory’s legend - that she killed 650 girls and literally bathed in their blood. She then uses these insights to look at female vampires in German literature ranging from Goethe to «Snow White.» The CG_42_2_s097-192End.indd 191 CG_42_2_s097-192End.indd 191 23.12.11 22: 06 23.12.11 22: 06 192 Besprechungen / Reviews final chapter looks at the «etiquette of execution,» an etiquette that outlines the parameters of a good death. Since Kord draws on often obscure documents in her case studies, it is helpful that she quotes extensively from the original sources. She works hard and successfully at engaging the reader; at times she lays out various ways to read the historical evidence, including the more traditional readings, then asks the reader to draw conclusions. In addition, she finds a fruitful balance between thoughtful generalizations and the specific facts of the cases. This volume’s particular strength lies in its logical, factbased questioning of long-standing assumptions. Although some of the hypotheses Kord puts forth must remain speculative due to the nature of the historical record, her reasoning entices. Indeed, these case studies engage the reader as would a wellwritten murder mystery. This is definitely a book worth reading for specialists and non-specialists alike. University of Kentucky Linda Kraus Worley CG_42_2_s097-192End.indd 192 CG_42_2_s097-192End.indd 192 23.12.11 22: 06 23.12.11 22: 06