Madame Tussaud's

Madame Tussaud's is the best known and most visited waxwork exhibition in the world.

In the Chamber of Horrors which is a part of Madame Tussaud's every exhibit deals with the subject of crime and punishment – it is a rogues gallery of dangerous and evil criminals.

In a dark, dank Victorian street, where Jack the Ripper stalked his prey, the torn and twisted body of one of his victims, Cathrine Eddowes, lies mutilated in a pool of blood.

Jack the Ripper was never brought to justice but others were, villians and murderers who met their ends by guillotine, gallows or garrotte.

Madame Tussaud first arrived in England in 1802 from Germany, where she was born in 1761. She brought with her gruesome souvenirs of the French Revolution, the instruments of death and death masks of their victims. The death masks of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are still on display next to the very guillotine blade that beheaded the French queen.

More recent means of execution include the firing squad and the electric chair. American murderer Gary Gilmore is seen facing a hail of bullets. Bruno Hauptman electrocuted in New Jersey, USA in 1936 can be seen here too.

Acid-bath murderer John George Haigh who killed at least nine people and disposed of the bodies in an acid bath, stands in the clothes he wore before his execution. Many prisoners or their relatives bequeathed or sold the clothes or some items which belonged to the murderers to dress their portraits at Madame Tussaud's.

And the «Brides in the Bath» George Joseph Smith leans over a victim in the actual bathtub in which he drowned his well-insured brides.

Notorious mass-murderer John Christie is at work in a replica of the tiny West London kitchen where he concealed the bodies of three of the seven women he killed.

Contemporary criminals in Britain no longer face the death penalty – instead they must spend years behind bars. The exhibition shows a bleak modern prison block with contemporary murderers standing before their cells.

Guy Thome's 1912 description of the murderers in the Chamber of Horrors is still true today: «Row upon row of faces which differ in every way one from another and yet are dreadfully alike. For these great sinister dolls, so unreal and so real, have all a likeness. The smirk of cruelty and cunning seems to lie upon their waxen masks. Colder than life, far colder than death they give forth emanations which strike the very heart with woe and desolation».

§ Vocabularly notes

§ Suggested activities on the text

a Explain the use of the following in the text:

b Find the answers in the text:

1 What is the name of the exhibition described?...............................................................................................

2 How did Madame Tussaud start her carrier in England?................................................................................

3 What are the crimes of:

Jack the Ripper.............................................................................................................................................

Gary Gilmore................................................................................................................................................

John George Heigh.......................................................................................................................................

George Joseph Smith.....................................................................................................................................

John Christie?................................................................................................................................................

4 Is death penalty still in law in the UK?............................................................................................................

5 How are contemparary criminals shown at the exhibition?..............................................................................

6 What did Guy Thorne say about his impression of the Chamber of Horrors? When did he write those words?........................................................................................................................................................................

с Repeat what the text says about the Chamber of Horrors.

d Translate the description given by Guy Thome into Russian.

e Write down answers to the following questions:

f Agree or disagree and support your point:

1 All criminals look very much alike.

2 Death penalty is in law in Russia.

3 Death penalty should be abolished in every country.

§ Word study

a Write out all the words and expressions associated with crime, from the text.

b Mark (with a tick) the meaning in which the following words are used in the text:

с Give the word families of the following words, as in the example:

crime – criminal (n) – criminal (adj) – to criminalize (v) – criminalist (n) – criminalistics (n)

d Write down how the following words are formed and translate all the words into Russian:

e Match the synonyms:

f Group the following words from the box into four or five logical groups:

Exhibition, crime, mass-murderer, to drown, to conceal bodies, gallery, punishment, ripper, guillotine, gruesome souvenirs, to stalk one's prey, gallows, death masks, torn and twisted body, garrotte, portrait or figure, to be brought to justice, sinister doll, criminal, guillotine blade, prisoner, acid-bath murderer, to behead, to face a hail of bullets, to kill

g Add as many nouns as possible to the following adjectives:

the most visited.. city, museum, theatre.........

the best known........................... dangerous....................................

rogues.......................................... contemporary..............................

gruesome..................................... striking.........................................

mutilated of.................................. horrible.........................................

well-insured................................ notorious......................................

h Choose the correct preposition:

i Translate into English using the following words: