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Publication
London : Hutchinson, 2002.
Description
"With his flair for dramatic stories and telling detail, A.N. Wilson singles out those writers, statesmen, scientists, philosophers, and soldiers whose lives illuminated the fervor of an age on the cusp of modernity. Here we meet the lofty and famous - Prince Albert, Darwin, Marx, Gladstone, Christina Rossetti, Gordon of Khartoum, Cardinal Newman, George Eliot, Kipling, and Disraeli. But we also meet the poor and the obscure - doctors ministering to cholera victims in the big cities; young women working as models for famous painters; the man who got the British hooked on cigarettes; the colonizers and colonized in Ireland, India, and Africa."--Jacket.
Media reviews
This high seriousness, though, is worn with a light touch, just as it was by many of the Victorians themselves (Disraeli is another of the book's unofficial heroes). Wilson has a sharp eye for the funny detail - the fact, for instance, that Prince Albert was tiny or that Engels had a broad
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Lancashire accent when he spoke English. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Northlaw
This book is well worth reading. The Victorian Era is not a period of history I was particularly attracted to, however, I read this author's "After The Victorians" and was so impressed that I wanted to read this volume as well. A.N. Wilson, has done, in my opinion, what is very close to impossible
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and that is to present a factually dense book which is also one of the most readable of any book I have read. There are many works of fiction that should be this enjoyable to read. It matters not if you are interested in this period or history in general, this book is a delight. Show Less
LibraryThing member Alinea
AN Wilson’s The Victorians is the longest and liveliest of the books which have appeared in the wake of the centenary of Victoria’s death. As one might expect, Wilson, Evening Standard columnist, novelist, and polemical biographer, has an eye for colourful detail, cannot resist gossip about the
As well as being its strengths, the author’s prejudices are at times the book’s weaknesses. Apart from Victoria’s Prime Ministers and the Irish nationalist leader, Parnell, Wilson doesn’t much like the politicians of the period (or the political economists), and these aspects of Victorian history get rather short shrift. And the narrative occasionally jumps and jars as he tries to include everything and anything (Dostoyevsky and Wagner wander in at one stage). But there is much to amuse and instruct throughout, and, just as important, not a little to argue with as well.--Miles Taylo
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great and good, and smells out cant and hypocrisy at 10 paces. Familiar tales are told about the sexual proclivities, religious hypocrisies and gargantuan economic and imperial appetites of the Victorians. But the book is more than an exercise in debunking. Wilson sees 19th century Britons as the harbingers of modernity: the first society to grapple with and agonise over the Darwinian struggle of social mobility and industrial growth. He documents in detail the relentless drive for getting on, sympathises with its victims--in the English towns, the Irish bogs and on the Indian plains – and warms to the critical commentary of the chief sages and seers of the era: Carlyle, Dickens, and Manning. The intellectual set-pieces of the time--the Gothic revival, religion versus science, Anglo-Catholicism--are particularly well-handled.As well as being its strengths, the author’s prejudices are at times the book’s weaknesses. Apart from Victoria’s Prime Ministers and the Irish nationalist leader, Parnell, Wilson doesn’t much like the politicians of the period (or the political economists), and these aspects of Victorian history get rather short shrift. And the narrative occasionally jumps and jars as he tries to include everything and anything (Dostoyevsky and Wagner wander in at one stage). But there is much to amuse and instruct throughout, and, just as important, not a little to argue with as well.--Miles Taylo
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LibraryThing member Abi78
A really readable account of the Victoria era. Scholarly and informative but still a darn good read.
Not entirely sure I agree with all the conclusions though. He certainly seems to have a streak of the Daily Mail 'hurrah for the ordinary money grubbing masses and boo for the liberal, educated
Not entirely sure I agree with all the conclusions though. He certainly seems to have a streak of the Daily Mail 'hurrah for the ordinary money grubbing masses and boo for the liberal, educated
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Whigs' kind of thing going on. And he seemms unnecessarily harsh on Darwin. Other than that though, a big thumbs up. Show Less
LibraryThing member fancyconstance
The complexity of this book impressed me. I expected something lighter, along the lines of Victorian-author trivia, but the book really delivers a multifaceted analysis of the Victorian Zeitgeist as well as important politicians, events, thinkers and writers of the time.
LibraryThing member Mouldywarp
Although I am not usually a great history reader, this book is easily the best I have ever read. Not only is it superbly written but it covers a huge range of the aspects of the era. Every important happening and person seems to be included from the arts, politics, science etc., etc. Definitely a
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masterpiece of the genre. Show Less
LibraryThing member John_Vaughan
Andrew Norman Wilson wrote a book Eminent Victorians and so did Lytton Strachey, but in the early 1900s, thereby confirming Strachey as an Eminent Victorian himself. However Wilson’s prose makes for an eminently more readable work, and in this panoramic study of the Victorian period he describes
It is his almost seemingly personal knowledge of these Victorian figures of history, invention, literature and politics – impossible of course as Wilson was not born until 1950 – that brings the book alive with insights. He brings a very human dimension to events as differing as the Irish Famine and the Zulu War and adds characteristics to the personalities that determined not only the British Victorian experience, but those of the whole Victorian Empire. The author explains how religion or atheism formed and distorted public and political values and how the literature of Dickens, Marx, and Tolstoy and even the fiction of the time eventually moved the poor into the conscience of the politicians and rulers.
Wilson shows how the Victorians were immensely successful in generating wealth and in inventions that removed labour from manufacturing, thereby adding to the working class poor and how, by their trading across the world, they ensured emigration and famine. Marx was always confounded that the riots and starvation of 1840 to 1850 never led to a British revolution while Europe was so deeply engrossed in so many. Wilson’s explanations on both the character of the British Victorians, their recent history and the emergence of valued and respected political leaders and (perhaps tardy) solutions staved off the revolt that many foretold.
This, the book jacket blurb says, was the book that Wilson was born to write. I have however enjoyed others he has written and look forward to adding more to my reading. This is a writer that you can respect, for his invested work on researching his subjects, and for his honesty and wit. This book is enjoyable historical writing in great depth.
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practically every single Victorian and historical event of the period worthy of note. The hundred-odd pages of references and source notes attest to the depth and breadth of his research, and it is obvious in reading the work that the author has spent years studying this period of history and he shows that he clearly knows the Victorian period.It is his almost seemingly personal knowledge of these Victorian figures of history, invention, literature and politics – impossible of course as Wilson was not born until 1950 – that brings the book alive with insights. He brings a very human dimension to events as differing as the Irish Famine and the Zulu War and adds characteristics to the personalities that determined not only the British Victorian experience, but those of the whole Victorian Empire. The author explains how religion or atheism formed and distorted public and political values and how the literature of Dickens, Marx, and Tolstoy and even the fiction of the time eventually moved the poor into the conscience of the politicians and rulers.
Wilson shows how the Victorians were immensely successful in generating wealth and in inventions that removed labour from manufacturing, thereby adding to the working class poor and how, by their trading across the world, they ensured emigration and famine. Marx was always confounded that the riots and starvation of 1840 to 1850 never led to a British revolution while Europe was so deeply engrossed in so many. Wilson’s explanations on both the character of the British Victorians, their recent history and the emergence of valued and respected political leaders and (perhaps tardy) solutions staved off the revolt that many foretold.
This, the book jacket blurb says, was the book that Wilson was born to write. I have however enjoyed others he has written and look forward to adding more to my reading. This is a writer that you can respect, for his invested work on researching his subjects, and for his honesty and wit. This book is enjoyable historical writing in great depth.
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LibraryThing member AlCracka
Comes highly recommended...I'm told not to be intimidated by its length, as it moves quickly, and it ties Victorian novels in a lot, which I love.
Awards
PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize (Shortlist — 2003)
Language
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
xii, 724 p.; 25 cm
ISBN
9780091794217
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DDC/MDS
| 941.081 |