From Library Journal
Things weren't always what they seemed in Victorian times, but just about anything could, and did, qualify as scandalous--even bare piano legs had to be covered. This collection of well-researched essays focuses on some less familiar shockers: divorce rates, gambling, infanticide, actresses, wrongful confinement of women in asylums, George Eliot, and the less-than-placid marriages of Thomas and Jane Carlyle and Edward and Rosina Bulwer-Lytton. The contributors peel back layers of stereotyping and fuzziness to reveal the perpetual struggle between public perception and private reality as illustrated (and manipulated) by journalists of the day. The real scandal is the Victorian view of women as inferior in every way to men, requiring protection from the world and their own frail, base natures. Recommended for larger libraries and those with extensive women's studies collections.
- Nancy L. Whitfield, Meriden P.L., Ct.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Nancy L. Whitfield, Meriden P.L., Ct.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
