the multiple presentations of Laura Fair’s character to the various interpreta- tions of defendants in criminal trials. During the nineteenth century, the in- quisitorial justice system, in which the investigation was typically overseen by a prosecutor or an examining magistrate, and the conduct of the trial was largely in the hands of the court, was replaced by the adversarial justice sys- tem. In the adversarial model, both the prosecutor and the defense were re- sponsible for gathering evidence and presenting a narrative of the crime during the trial. Therefore, the courtroom became a sentimental theater in which opposing counsels recreated for the jury the story of the defendant and the events leading to the crime. The trial, therefore, represented the exclu- sive forum for seeking out and determining the truth. During Fair’s second trial, her counsel portrayed her as an innocent single mother who had been failed multiple times by the men of her life, and was finally deceived by her devious lover. Doctors testified that her biological con- dition impaired her capacity to control her behavior and emotions, whereas prosecutors, on the other hand, described her as a mischievous and unscrupu- lous woman whose “heart was evil, [and] her hands smeared with the blood of revenge” (4). Convinced by an effective defense supported by distinguished medical opinions on the connection between insanity and women’s biological cycles, the jury returned a not guilty verdict to the astonishment of the entire country. Laura Fair’s case not only shocked and enchanted her contemporaries but captivated the imagination of the public and the press for well over a century. Haber’s fascinating chronicle succeeds in providing a mesmerizing story of Laura Fair’s life and trials, examining their many competing narratives and how they were reinvented over time. It also describes the beliefs, contra- dictions and constructions of gender roles, reputation, marriage, deception, in- sanity, crime, and sexuality in the Victorian era, as well as how these concepts were perceived and recreated in American courts. Benedetta Faedi Duramy Golden Gate University School of Law David A. J. Richards, The Rise of Gay Rights and the Fall of the British Empire: Liberal Resistance and the Bloomsbury Group, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. 282. $95.00 cloth (ISBN 978-1-107-03795-3); $34.99 paper (ISBN 978-1-107-65979). doi:10.1017/S0738248014000686 The scope of this book is much broader than its title suggests. Richards, a law professor at New York University, has written not only about gay rights and Book Reviews 249