The spectacle of intimacy : a public life for the Victorian family / Karen Chase and Michael Levenson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chase, Karen, 1952-

Contributor:

Levenson, Michael H. (Michael Harry), 1951-

Series:

Literature in history (Princeton, N.J.)

Literature in history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--19th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Home in literature.

Literature and history--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Literature and history.

Public opinion--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Public opinion.

Privacy--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Privacy.

Families--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Families.

Families in literature.

Great Britain--History--Victoria, 1837-1901.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (263 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Love of home life, the intimate moments a family peacefully enjoyed in seclusion, had long been considered a hallmark of English character even before the Victorian era. But the Victorians attached unprecedented importance to domesticity, romanticizing the family in every medium from novels to government reports, to the point where actual families felt anxious and the public developed a fierce appetite for scandal. Here Karen Chase and Michael Levenson explore how intimacy became a spectacle and how this paradox energized Victorian culture between 1835 and 1865. They tell a story of a society continually perfecting the forms of private pleasure and yet forever finding its secrets exposed to view. The friction between the two conditions sparks insightful discussions of authority and sentiment, empire and middle-class politics. The book recovers neglected episodes of this mid-century drama: the adultery trial of Caroline Norton and the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne; the Bedchamber Crisis of the young Queen Victoria; the Bloomer craze of the 1850's; and Robert Kerr's influential treatise, celebrating the ideal of the English Gentleman's House. The literary representation of household life--in Dickens, Tennyson, Ellis, and Oliphant, among others--is placed in relation to such public spectacles as the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill of 1848, the controversy over divorce in the years 1854-1857, and the triumphant return of Florence Nightingale from the Crimea. These colorful incidents create a telling new portrait of Victorian family life, one that demands a fundamental rethinking of the relation between public and private spheres.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Introduction: The Trouble with Families

PART ONE: The Political Theater of Domesticity

PART TWO: Beneath the Banner of Home

PART THREE: Was That an Angel in the House?

PART FOUR: The Architecture of Comfort and Ruin

PART FIVE: The Sensations of Respectability

EPILOGUE: Between Manual and Spectacle

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612303845

9781282303843

1282303848

9781400831128

1400831121

OCLC:

496275791