The Making of Victorian England

by G. Kitson Clark

Based on the Ford Lectures, delivered at Oxford in 1960, the author describes some of the forces which created what we call 'Victorian England'.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Susan]

The preface is arduous. The first chapter slightly better and so it goes until fully at midway in the book, actually a series of conversations at Oxford, Clark hits his stride. Then the book, halfway through becomes a magnificient tour de force of the mistakes of Victorian England that sound eerily like US today. At points I was stunned by the similarities, and I guess that was part of his point -- VE setup so much for England/America going forward that to ignore it is a mistake. How will it end? It seems badly.

[John E]

Beware. This is not a narrative history of Victorian England. Rather it is a series of essays on the impact of factors that made 19th Century England and the areas that need more work to understand just what is and was Victorian England. Not an easy read for the layman nor for the specialist -- it took me four months to slog through it and try to absorb the details covered.