{"product_id":"2940013750586","title":"The Love Affair of George Vincent Parker","description":"[The cases dealt with in this series of studies of criminal psychology\u003cbr\u003eare taken from the actual history of crime, though occasionally names\u003cbr\u003ehave been changed where their retention might cause pain to surviving\u003cbr\u003erelatives.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE student of criminal annals will find upon classifying his cases that\u003cbr\u003ethe two causes which are the most likely to incite a human being to the\u003cbr\u003ecrime of murder are the lust of money and the black resentment of a\u003cbr\u003edisappointed love. Of these the latter are both rarer and more\u003cbr\u003einteresting, for they are subtler in their inception and deeper in their\u003cbr\u003epsychology. The mind can find no possible sympathy with the brutal greed\u003cbr\u003eand selfishness which weighs a purse against a life; but there is\u003cbr\u003esomething more spiritual in the case of the man who is driven by jealousy\u003cbr\u003eand misery to a temporary madness of violence. To use the language of\u003cbr\u003escience it is the passionate as distinguished from the instinctive\u003cbr\u003ecriminal type. The two classes of crime may be punished by the same\u003cbr\u003eseverity, but we feel that they are not equally sordid, and that none of\u003cbr\u003eus is capable of saying how he might act if his affections and his\u003cbr\u003eself-respect were suddenly and cruelly outraged. Even when we indorse the\u003cbr\u003everdict it is still possible to feel some shred of pity for the criminal.\u003cbr\u003eHis offence has not been the result of a self-interested and cold-blooded\u003cbr\u003eplotting, but it has been the consequence--however monstrous and\u003cbr\u003edisproportionate--of a cause for which others were responsible. As an\u003cbr\u003eexample of such a crime I would recite the circumstances connected with\u003cbr\u003eGeorge Vincent Parker, making some alteration in the names of persons and\u003cbr\u003eof places wherever there is a possibility that pain might be inflicted by\u003cbr\u003etheir disclosure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNearly forty years ago there lived in one of our Midland cities a certain\u003cbr\u003eMr. Parker, who did a considerable business as a commission agent. He was\u003cbr\u003ean excellent man of affairs, and during those progressive years which\u003cbr\u003eintervened between the Crimean and the American wars his fortune\u003cbr\u003eincreased rapidly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe built himself a villa in a pleasant suburb outside the town, and being\u003cbr\u003eblessed with a charming and sympathetic wife there was every prospect\u003cbr\u003ethat the evening of his days would be spent in happiness. The only\u003cbr\u003etrouble which he had to contend with was his inability to understand the\u003cbr\u003echaracter of his only son, or to determine what plans he should make for\u003cbr\u003ehis future.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47175567704304,"sku":"2940013750586","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013750586_p0.jpg?v=1763589768","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013750586","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}