Books by Alexander (University College Murray

In The Curse on Self-Murder, the second volume of Suicide in the Middle Ages, Alexander Murray explores the origin of the condemnation of suicide, in a quest which leads along the most unexpected byways of medieval theology, law, mythology, and folklore.

`Suicide' and `the Middle Ages' sounds like a contradiction. Was life not too short anyway, and the Church too disapproving, to admit suicide? Examining a wide range of suicides, and exploring how the living reacted to them, Alexander Murray takes the reader on a remarkable odyssey through medieval law, social life, literature, and religion.