The Victorians by John D Wright

The Victorians by John D Wright ISBN-13: 9781782745884 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Amber Books Ltd Released: May 14th 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
The Victorian era boasted the glory of the Empire and the grandeur that Empire afforded, it saw huge technological advances in civil engineering and transport, mass urbanisation and social change, as well as still-treasured literature and the most popular sports that we play today. But it was also a time of great poverty, of mass child labour and prostitution, of the Irish Potato Famine and British concentration camps in the Boer War, of the boom and bust of the California Gold Rush and slavery being fought over in America, of sexual hypocrisy and rigid class differences.

The Victorians explores the Victorian world from its cholera epidemics and asylums to its workhouses and chimneysweeps, from the Opium Wars to London’s opium dens, from the gangs of New York to convicts bound for Australia, from body-snatchers to freakshows, from the British in Afghanistan to the American Civil War, from imposters claiming fortunes to women pretending to be men. Included are the lives of such colourful figures as Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, the Elephant Man and Jack the Ripper, and the world that inspired Dracula, detective stories and the character of Sherlock Holmes. Expertly written and using 180 photographs, paintings, and illustrations, The Victorians reveals that behind the splendour and the facades was a world of poverty, disease and hypocrisy.


My Review:
The Victorians provides an overview of the Victorian era along with many photographs and illustrations from the time. If you're already familiar with the Victorian era, you probably won't find much new here. However, this is a good overview of the time period for those unfamiliar with it. The focus was mainly on England and America, but other countries were mentioned if something notable happened there, like a great fire that destroyed most of the city. The author covered things like wars, new technologies, notable crimes and criminals, popular literature or entertainment, city life, women's issues, slavery, and more. The illustrations and photographs from that time period were interesting and helped give a sense of the time. I'd recommend this book to those interested in an overview of the main issues of the Victorian age.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.