The Victorians: An Age in RetrospectA&C Black, 27 ott 2006 - 320 pagine Who were the Victorians? Were they self-confident imperialists secure in the virtues of the home, and ruled by the values of authority, duty, religion and respectability? Or were they self-doubting and hypocritical prudes whose family life was authoritarian and loveless? Ever since Lytton Strachey mocked Florence Nightingale and General Gordon in Eminent Victorians, the reputation of the Victorians, and of what they stood for, has been the subject of vigorous debate. John Gardiner provides a fascinating guide to the changing reputation of the Victorians during the 20th century. Different social, political, and aesthetic values, two world wars, youth culture, nostalgia, new historical trends and the heritage industry have all affected the way we see the age and its men and women. The second half of the book shows how radically biographical accounts have changed over the last 100 years, exemplified by four archetypical Victorians: Charles Dickens, W.E. Gladstone, Oscar Wilde, and Queen Victoria herself. |
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2nd edn adaptations amongst anti-Victorianism attitudes became Bloomsbury Bloomsbury Group Britain British Brontë Cambridge Cannadine Charles Dickens commented contemporary critics culture decade diaries Dickens's Dickensian Disraeli E. M. Forster early Victorian Edwardian Eminent Victorians empire English Essays Evelyn Waugh F. R. Leavis father felt film G. M. Trevelyan G. M. Young George Gladstone Gladstone's Gosse Harmondsworth Haven and London Herbert Gladstone heritage industry historians Holroyd homosexuality human imagination imperial intellectual inter-war John late Victorian later letters Liberal literary lives London Lord Lytton Strachey Matthew memory mid-Victorian modern monarchy moral National nineteenth century nostalgia novels Oscar Wilde Oxford past perspective political popular Portrait post-war Queen Victoria reading reflected revised edn royal scholars Second World sense sexual social society Strachey's Thatcher tradition twentieth century Victorian age Victorian England Victorian London Victorian period Victorian values Virginia Woolf Wilde's women working-class writing wrote