Radical Victorians

Radical Victorians written by James Hobson and published by Pen & Sword Books

- £20.00 - Hardback - Pages 232

There is more to the Victorian era than respectability, economic success and the grudging solution of the practical social problems they encountered. The politicians, generals and commercial classes have been well covered in popular history books, but there were also thinkers of radical and unsettling ideas who had a real influence at the time. Many were women, many from the middle and working classes, and almost all outside the power structure. They were by no means all fringe ideas either – in 1840, Queen Victoria herself attended a séance, for example.

The book is a biography focused history of some of these challenging ideas and the men and women who promoted them. It looks at radical thinkers and movers, the people who stepped outside of the social norm and propelled the Victorians towards the modern day.

A lovely little book that looks at different individuals of the Victorian age, but these people are radical thinkers and practitioners. These aren’t necessarily well-known names but they are important in their own little areas of expertise or dominance. The book is split into 15 chapters with each chapter following individual men and women. The chapters look at particular subjects and the radical thinkers in that subject such as Temperance, Spiritualism, Birth Control and radical journalism. Whilst had heard about some of these people, especially quite a few of the women these characters were from more the second level of prominence. The book was an interesting and easy read, and in fact it was nice to hear about these lesser characters or people. This book is certainly a good book and ideal for anyone interested in this period of time.

Not So Virtuous Victorians

Not So Virtuous Victorians written by Michelle Rosenberg and published by Pen & Sword Books - £12.99 - Softcover - Pages 112

What springs to mind when you think of British Victorian men and women? – manners, manners and more manners. Behaviour that was as rigid and constricted as the corsets women wore. From iron-knicker sexual prudery to men so uptight they furtively released their pent up emotions in opium dens and prostitute hot spots. All, of course, exaggerated clichés worthy of a Victorian melodrama.

Each generation loves to think it is better than the last and loves to look aghast at the horrifying trends of their ancestors. But are we really any different? This glimpse at life for Victorian men and women might make millennials think again.

Men and women were expected to live very differently from one another with clearly defined roles regardless of class. However, lift the skirts a little and not only will you see that they didn’t wear knickers but they were far less repressed than the persistent stereotypes would have us believe. The Victorians were as weird and wonderful as we are today.

From fatal beauty tips to truly hysterical cures for hysteria to grave robbers playing skittles with human bones, we have cherry picked some of the more entertaining glimpses into the lives led by our Victorian brothers and sisters.

This is a small book that looks at alternative little bits of life in Victorian Britain, looking at Child Labour, Sex & Perversion, Hidden Sexualities and Fashion Victims. The chapters are small but the book entertaining, good and quite humorous in places. Maybe a book for people wanting to start getting into learning about the Victorian era.