Kalendarz więzienia Newgate - prototyp angielskich pitavali

Abstract

The paper first introduces the reader to some facts connected with the history of the Newgate Prison and the public executions which were taking place in front of it down to Dickens’s times. The notoriety of the prison produced its criminal chronicle - The Newgate Calendar of which various versions and imitations are discussed and then the paper concentrates on The New Newgate Calendar as the most comprehensive and methodical publication of the British annals of crime and punishment. The character of that publication - sensational, but also seriously juridical and informative - and its literary plainness are presented. Crimes and criminals are seen against their social background, mostly eighteenth century, with the extreme savagery of the criminal law illustrated by most sentences and executions described in The New Newgate Calendar. Some attempts to humanize the penal system are mentioned.