Changes

Jump to: navigation, search

Victorian Britain and the Empire: Top Ten Books to Read

332 bytes added, 06:26, 25 October 2017
no edit summary
[[File:darkenedroom.jpg|200px]]
7. [https://www.amazon.com/Eminent-Victorians-Classic-20th-Century-Penguin/dp/0140183507/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823834&sr=1-1&keywords=Lytton+Strachey%3A+%27%27Eminent+Victorians%27 Lytton Strachey: ''Eminent Victorians']' – This work, first published in 1918, was one of the first biographies to ''not'' examine only great (white) men who did great things. Strachey's style helped replace a certain reverence that Victorians usually held for famous figures with a healthy skepticism of these figures' actions. Strachey examines his subjects' notable deeds alongside their faults, all the while displaying great wit and undeniable readability.
8. [https://www.amazon.com/Oscar-Wilde-Richard-Ellmann/dp/0394759842/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823858&sr=1-1&keywords=Richard+Ellmann%3A+%27%27Oscar+Wilde Richard Ellmann: ''Oscar Wilde]'' – With a subject like Oscar Wilde, a biographer would be hard-pressed to create a work that didn't bring the reader directly into the world of its subjectread like a best-selling novel. Ellmann's work is the definitive biography of Wilde; it brilliantly juxtaposes Wilde’s eccentricities against straight-laced Victorian society. It's a hefty read at over 700 pages, but well worth it.
9. [https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Victorian-Home-Portrait-Domestic/dp/0393327639/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823883&sr=1-1&keywords=Judith+Flanders%3A+%27%27Inside+the+Victorian+Home%3A+A+Portrait+of+Domestic+Life+in+Victorian+England Judith Flanders: ''Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England]'' – This is a fun, quick read on the daily lives of Victorian upper and middle class people. What did they do all day, what did they wear, what did they eat? Flanders largely ignores the working classes, which made up the majority of Victorian society, but this work is an interesting nonethelesslook into the new middle class in Britain.
10. [https://www.amazon.com/VICTORIAN-INFIDELS-Secularist-Movement-1791-1866/dp/0719005574/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508823903&sr=1-1&keywords=Edward+Royle%3A+%27%27Victorian+Infidels%3A+The+Origins+of+the+British+Secularist+Movement Edward Royle: ''Victorian Infidels: The Origins of the British Secularist Movement]'' – A little mentioned book among modern British historians, but an important work nonetheless. Royle’s work examines the beginning of secularism , outside the context of class and political boundaries – a method which was long overdue when this book was . Before Royle, most British historians considered atheism/agnosticism to be products of working-class distrust of the State. This work changed all that, and it is perhaps one of the most important books on the beginnings of secularism ever published.
[[File:vicinfidels.jpg|200px]]

Navigation menu