Of murder as one of the fine arts

To stage a murder by design, more than two fools are required: one to kill, another to die, a knife, a bag, and a dark alley.

A classic of black humour and provocation, Murder as a Fine Art (1827) is a treatise on, shall we say, the art of forcing someone to stretch their legs.

Drawing on a panoply of exemplary murderers, from the biblical Cain to new aficionados with proven track records in the field, this work, which influenced generations of writers—from Poe to Baudelaire, from Gogol to Borges—is packed with two further opuses on the art of stylishly slit throats and on the relationship between violence and the sublime.

For, according to the author, a murder comme il faut is, in the light of aesthetic considerations, an exercise as worthy of appreciation as a beautiful work of art.