Victorian Scandals

Library Journal

Things weren't always what they seemed in Victorian times, but just about anything could, and did, qualify as scandalous--even bare piano legs had to be covered. This collection of well-researched essays focuses on some less familiar shockers: divorce rates, gambling, infanticide, actresses, wrongful confinement of women in asylums, George Eliot, and the less-than-placid marriages of Thomas and Jane Carlyle and Edward and Rosina Bulwer-Lytton. The contributors peel back layers of stereotyping and fuzziness to reveal the perpetual struggle between public perception and private reality as illustrated (and manipulated) by journalists of the day. The real scandal is the Victorian view of women as inferior in every way to men, requiring protection from the world and their own frail, base natures. Recommended for larger libraries and those with extensive women's studies collections.-- Nancy L. Whitfield, Meriden P.L., Ct.

Booknews

These essays address a broad variety of issues faced by editors, textual critics, literary scholars, and composition specialists who are interested in the writing and revision processes involved in the development of literary texts. Specific authors examined include Browning, Tennyson, Arnold, Yeats, Conrad, Hardy, Rossetti, Morris, and Beatrix Potter. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)