This book is a nice introduction to the organisation of, and day-to-day life in, a late Victorian lunatic asylum. The first part of the book (which isThis book is a nice introduction to the organisation of, and day-to-day life in, a late Victorian lunatic asylum. The first part of the book (which is most of the book) is written as if it’s a guide to asylum life for the new patient - it makes it a little easier to read, but does mean that this book isn’t suitable if you already have a working knowledge of how the asylums were run.
The authors clearly loves his subject - he has also written a book on Broadmoor - and his enthusiasm for it comes across on every page. Recommended as an easy-reading introduction to the subject....more
This was an enjoyable, light read. I think the author's intention was to provide a basic introduction to Broadmoor, focusing on the early days. MuchThis was an enjoyable, light read. I think the author's intention was to provide a basic introduction to Broadmoor, focusing on the early days. Much of the book describes the histories of a selection of patients, illustrating why Broadmoor was built and why alterations were made, who the patients were and how they arrived there, and how the institution dealt with problems that were technically outside the remit of Broadmoor, such as women patients giving birth.
If you want an introduction to Victorian Broadmoor, this is a good place to start. If you want something deeper, or a view of where Broadmoor sat in the overall scheme of dealing with mental illness in the 19th century, or even how mental illness was dealt with, then this is not the book for you.
This was interesting and amusing. The conceit of presenting the information from the point of view of a group of fictional Victorians added to theThis was interesting and amusing. The conceit of presenting the information from the point of view of a group of fictional Victorians added to the amusement but unfortunately detracted from the interest. I would have preferred more direct quotes, better referencing, and more comment from a knowledgeable author - the way Liza Picard does brilliantly in Victorian London....more
This is quite a short book, and a relatively light (given the subject matter), easy read.
Elizabeth Berry was hanged at the age of 31, for the murderThis is quite a short book, and a relatively light (given the subject matter), easy read.
Elizabeth Berry was hanged at the age of 31, for the murder of her eleven-year-old daughter. An inquest also found her guilty of murdering her mother - it's possible that she also murdered her husband and both of her other children, all by poison.
This books is written in a rather sensational style, and includes details (e.g. weather, what people were thinking) that I doubt was available in the historical record. However, it does make the read go faster - more like a thriller than non-fiction.
I don't know how good the author's research was, but if his quotes and other facts are even mostly correct, then this is actually a pretty good book for someone who either a) wants to know more about Elizabeth Berry or b) wants an easy-reading introduction to Victorian murder cases.
In some ways, what's just as interesting as the main 'story' about Berry herself (and putting together what might be a modern psychiatric diagnosis), is the surrounding detail about the social setting which provided the circumstances for the crime: the custom of insuring children's lives (to pay the funeral expenses); the relative ease of - at that time - getting away with murder-by-poison due to lack of forensic scientific knowledge; the lack of a social security system meaning that even without an insurance payout, getting rid of a child would at least remove a financial burden.
There isn't any real depth here - but if you're looking for an interesting, fast-moving read that doesn't require much in the way of intellectual effort, it's a good read....more
Liza Picard has achieved what many authors only dream of: to be informative, interesting, and witty. Simultaneously.
Victorian London is split intoLiza Picard has achieved what many authors only dream of: to be informative, interesting, and witty. Simultaneously.
Victorian London is split into chapters, each dealing with an aspect of London life, starting with Smells and ending with Death. Each chapter consists, essentially, of a long list of little snippets of information - sometimes with Picard's commentary, which is generally a joke or aside: she tends to let the information, much of which is quoted from original sources such as letters and diaries, speak for itself.
Some of the snippets do appear in more than one chapter, but this should be regarded as a feature rather than a bug: if you are looking for information on Smells, then you only need to read the relevant chapter. You don't have to wonder whether there's some information elsewhere in the book that mentions a smell in passing, even though it's mostly about something else.
Ms Picard also likes detail. This is very much about the minutiae of people's everyday lives, not the big political sweep. She mentions the difficulty of keeping linen clean in London's filthy atmosphere; the 'husbands' boat' taking middle-class husbands down the Thames to Margate to where wives and children were spending the summer; and lady pick-pockets who would sit demurely next to you on the omnibus with two hands (one real and one false) modestly clasped in their lap, while their second real hand was picking your pocket.
By leaving so much of the information in the words of Victorian London's people, the experience is more like speed-dating (in a good way): you spend a few minutes learning about one person, then you're off to the next person for their views on their life and their city. Picard performs the function of master of ceremonies, ushering you from person to person, giving you a few words of explanation where needed, and adding in her own jokes. She sounds like a woman with a great sense of humour as well as an enquiring mind and a deep love for London; I wish I could meet her - apart from anything else, according to Wikipedia, she's got a book on fourteenth-century England coming out later this year (2017). She'll be 90. That is a woman worthy of very great respect....more
This is not a book for people who are already knowledgeable on the topic of domestic daily life during the Victorian age inThis book was excellent.
This is not a book for people who are already knowledgeable on the topic of domestic daily life during the Victorian age in England. Flanders does, however, manage to combine an informative overview with a considerable degree of entertainment value - especially if you read the footnotes, were most of the humour is.
This is a particularly useful book for anyone hoping to write about the period, since Flanders does not get bogged down in detail, but she does manage to get the 'feel' of the period very well indeed. One thing that particularly struck me is the sheer filthiness of the cities (particularly London, as the largest city) - Flanders does not just say "it was filthy" but demonstrates by discussing little adjustments people had to make, like not putting out a white tablecloth until a short time before the meal, or it would go grey. This level of atmospheric pollution is something that we just don't have to deal with in the UK any more, so it's hard to imagine without the examples Flanders gives.
Another interesting area is the illustration of how limited many middle-class women's lives were - again, something that we find it difficult to appreciate from our twenty-first century standpoint. We might intellectually know that the Victorian period was probably the one in English history where women's rights and status in society reached their lowest ebb, but Flanders provides illustrative facts, including that since women were supposed to spend their lives catering to their families (particularly the men), pretty much the only way for a woman to get some time to herself was to be ill - which provided a cast-iron excuse for retiring to one's bedroom and closing the door. It provides an interesting alternative viewpoint on the fragile Victorian lady - women's health was generally poorer than men's because of their poorer diet and lack of fresh air and exercise, but being a professional invalid definitely had its attractions for any woman who wanted to escape the endless round of service to others.
This is a book I shall probably refer to again, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the domestic life of the period....more
Recommended for: anyone who wants some contemporary background on travelling culture of ladies of the middle- and upper-classes during the last decadeRecommended for: anyone who wants some contemporary background on travelling culture of ladies of the middle- and upper-classes during the last decade or two of the nineteenth century
The original edition of Hints to Lady Travellers was written by Lillias Campbell Davidson, and published in 1889. This was about the time when ladies travelling alone had mostly ceased to be shocking; this is a handbook for the lady who wishes to travel (even to such wild, remote places as Wales or Scotland) but isn’t quite sure how to go about it, what she should take with her (or not), and what she might might encounter on her travels. It is therefore for the ‘ordinary’ lady traveller – not the adventurous explorer intending to journey to Patagonia or China. This edition, however, does have quotes from the writing of such adventurous lady explorers and travellers as Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Hindustan – lots of turbans, not many stockings); Mary H. Kingsley (West Africa - husband considered necessary equipment for traversing rapids); Lady Florence Caroline Dixie (Patagonia – take a sheath knife and a revolver; mules are more useful than horses).
Some of the advice is now completely outdated, such as the advice, in case of emergency, to leave a member of the “stronger sex” [i.e., a man] to manage matters “without the hampering interference of feminine physical weakness.” Or the advice that, when travelling by steamer, it’s useless to have one’s maid travel third class while one travels first. One should either dispense with the maid entirely, or defy convention by upgrading her to first class.
On the other hand, some of the advice has definitely stood the test of time, such as the advice, on taking a room or apartment, to note any damage to the room or fittings and bring it to the attention of the landlady in order to avoid being charged for damage that was already there (the authors states that she knows of “one bedroom carpet, stained by the overflow of a bath two years ago, which has since been charged to the account of, and paid for by, some ten or twelve consecutive occupants of that self-same room.”
This book is fascinating, though, because it’s a window into a world which no longer exists. A world where travelling by railway (or by tricycle) could be an exciting and somewhat scary adventure, and where rival railway companies, if they were quarrelling, might deliberately act to make passengers miss their connections. It’s also a world where, although women were starting to move beyond the confines of the home, they still saw themselves as fundamentally weaker than, less capable than, and in many respects inferior to, men. ...more
T. K. Elliott (Tiffany)
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Books:
history-19th-century
(17)
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