Victorian Freaks: The Social Context of Freakery in Britain

by Marlene Tromp (Editor)

While “freaks” have captivated our imagination since well before the nineteenth century, the Victorians flocked to shows featuring dancing dwarves, bearded ladies, “missing links,” and six-legged sheep. Indeed, this period has been described by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson as the epoch of “consolidation” for freakery: an era of social change, enormously popular freak shows, and taxonomic frenzy. Victorian Freaks: The Social Context of Freakery in Britain, edited by Marlene Tromp, turns to that rich nexus, examining the struggle over definitions of “freakery” and the unstable and sometimes conflicting ways in which freakery was understood and deployed. As the first study centralizing British culture, this collection discusses figures as varied as Joseph Merrick, “The Elephant Man”; Daniel Lambert, “King of the Fat Men”; Julia Pastrana, “The Bear Woman”; and Laloo “The Marvellous Indian Boy” and his embedded, parasitic twin. The Victorian Freaks contributors examine Victorian culture through the lens of freakery, reading the production of the freak against the landscape of capitalist consumption, the medical community, and the politics of empire, sexuality, and art. Collectively, these essays ask how freakery engaged with notions of normalcy and with its Victorian cultural context.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Disability Studies, Cultural, Audiobook, Disability, Literary Criticism

368 pages, Hardcover

First published April 8, 2008

About the author

Dr. Marlene Tromp Was John and Christine Warner Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. She is currently the President of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho.

Reviews

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

True to the preface, this book was compiled of various essays that strove to prove enfreakment of the Victorian era. Much of it was either rambling or monotonous, but often there were rays of interest. I chose audio and it was apparent the narrator had no experience with foreign languages.

[Chris Nagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The butler did it.

[Victoria Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very helpful for my research on disabilities in the Victorian Era. The introduction gave some great general context and addressed the importance of looking at this place and period in history, which is often glossed over in freak studies. The article "Even as You and I" was important in examining propaganda related to late-Victorian freak shows while "Elephant Talk: Language and Enfranchisement in the Merrick Case" sets out to discuss language used in discussions of "the Elephant Man" from a more medical background. Durbach's "The Missing Link and the Hairy Belle" and Stern's "Our Bear Women, Ourselves" discuss how two hirsute women were exhibited and presented in Victorian freak shows. Tromp touches on the relationship between colonialism and freak shows in "Empire and the Indian Freak" while Martha Stoddard Holmes discusses the relationship between queerness and disability in Victorian literature. Smit links conversations about freakery to photography developments in the 1800s. All in all, this is a very important book for anyone interested in learning more about disablilites and freakery in the Victorian era.

[Gerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covered good ground. Made interesting connections between freakery and social constructs regarding the working class and the upwardly mobile.