Customer Reviews

The Times Great Victorian Lives: An Era in Obituaries (Times (Times Books))

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Great Victorian Lives, being a collection of obituaries from the London Times, is simply fascinating. From Robert E. Lee to Charles Darwin and a lot in between that you may not recognize but will soon realize just how influential their lives were on our own modern condition, this wonderful book underscores how one generation impacts another. We are building on the foundation laid for their accomplishments. We are suffering for their failures. Aside from these thoughts, I really enjoyed (and still enjoy) reading the obituaries in the London Times. It is simply some of the best prose bring written. This is a summer read if there ever was one (also good by the fireplace on a cold winter's day, which is how I read it!).

A book providing the immediate remarks by The Times on the deaths of prominent people of the 19th century.

The obituaries vary in interest and in length. Some serve to remind one of the important roles played by many that are remembered by most now only by name, such as Florence Nightingale, Otto Von Bismarck and Lord Kelvin. Others are deadly in flowery detail and length such as those for Gladstone and Napoleon III.

I found it interesting that the obituaries of this period in The Times often gave extended attention to the actual details of last illness of the particular deceased while providing almost no other coverage of his or her private life.

Although a minor part of this book, the editorial information given at the end of each obituary was, to my thinking, very uneven and at times unhelpful.