An Age in Retrospect
John Gardiner
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 where 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 twentieth 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 hundred years, exemplified by four archetypical Victorians: Charles Dickens, W.E Gladstone, Oscar Wilde and Queen Victoria herself.
'when doses of rhubarb were periodic and gigantic, when pet dogs threw themselves out of upper storey windows, when cooks reeled drunk in areas ... when an antimacassar was on every chair, and the baths were minute tin circles, and the beds were full of bugs and disasters'
-- LYTTON STRACHEY
'a fascinating study of changing attitudes to the Victorians'
-- A.N. WILSON
