Inventing the Victorians

Was Queen Victoria amused? Did Victorian ladies really `lie back and think of England?' Matthew Sweet argues that our 19th century forebears were more liberated and radical than we believed. Delving into such Victorian passions as advertising, interior decoration, sex scandals and serial killers, Sweet shows us that we are not so far removed from the Victorians as we would like to think. A revisionist version of history exceedingly well told, describing a lurid thrill-seeking populace avid for sensation. Colourful characters parade through chapters that demonstrate how innovative, fast-paced, diverse and radical the era was. Sweet has turned his scholarly research through the detritus of high and low 19th-century culture into a page-turning piece of pop-culture history...