page_title: Edward Oxford
section_title: In fiction
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Oxford / In fiction
caption_attribution_description: English: Chapter 28: Mrs. Jarley teaches Little Nell how to be a guide for her waxworks. At the far right Browne caricatures an exhibit at Mme. Tussauds in London of Edward Oxford, who had attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria earlier that year: a wide-eyed, imbecilic young man, clutching a flintlock pistol in his right hand and a tankard of beer in his left, with a sheet of paper marked “Young England” sticking out of his pocket. In the line of fire, to the back of Oxford, sits a calmly unaware Queen Victoria, holding the orb and sceptre and dressed in her 1838 coronation robes. While Oxford’s pistol may be pointing at her, "Phiz" depicts her as untouched, serenely above and beyond the lunatic's threat.
context_page_description: Edward Oxford was the first of seven people who tried to assassinate Queen Victoria. After Oxford was arrested and charged with treason, a jury found that Oxford was not guilty by reason of insanity and he was detained at Her Majesty's pleasure in the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum and later, in Broadmoor Hospital. Eventually given conditional release for transportation to a British colony, he lived out the remainder of his life in Australia.
context_section_description: A contemporary reference to Oxford appears in Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop, the novel that Dickens was writing during the months before and after the attempted regicide. Although Dickens took a strong interest in the case, Oxford appears not in Dickens's text, which was serialised in his weekly publication, Master Humphrey's Clock, but in one of the novel's accompanying illustrations, rendered by Hablot K. Browne, popularly known as "Phiz".
  In an illustration for Chapter 28, Mrs. Jarley, the proprietress of a waxworks, is shown training the heroine, Little Nell, to be a guide. Although the novel is set some fifteen years before 1840, Browne was no doubt inspired by Madame Tussauds' London waxworks, where the exhibit of Edward Oxford was a star attraction for that year, to create a contemporary reference. His caricature of the would-be assassin as a wide-eyed, imbecilically grinning youth, clutching a flintlock pistol in his right hand and a pot of beer in his left, with a sheet of paper labelled “Young England” spilling out of his pocket, was easily identifiable by anyone at the time. In the direct line of fire behind him sits a calmly serene Queen Victoria, dressed in her 1838 coronation robes and holding the orb and sceptre. While Oxford's pistol may be pointing in her direction, "Phiz" reassuringly depicts the sovereign as literally far above her attacker, serenely and majestically removed from the lunatic's threat.
  Oxford is a major character in Mark Hodder's 2010 novel, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, in which one of his descendants also named Edward Oxford from the year 2202 travels back in time to stop his ancestor from even attempting the act.
  Samuel Warren is believed to have used Oxford as a model for his portrait of the shallow, dissolute youth Titbat Tittlemouse in his popular novel Ten Thousand a Year.
  Edward Oxford, "Young England" and the assassination attempt are plot elements in David Morrell's 2015 novel, "Inspector of the Dead", which takes place 15 years after the attempt.  In the novel, the second in his Thomas de Quincy series, his detective Inspector Ryan is identified as having been one of the constables on the scene at the time of the attempt.
caption: The Old Curiosity Shop: Waxwork exhibit of a deranged Edward Oxford clutching pistol and pint pot (far right); Queen Victoria, in coronation garb, is in the line of fire at top right.
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