Palaces of pleasure : from music halls to the seaside to football, how the Victorians invented mass entertainment / Lee Jackson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jackson, Lee, 1971-

Contributor:

Class of 1924 Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Performing arts.

History.

Leisure industry.

Amusements.

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

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Social life and customs--19th century.

Manners and customs.

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

Leisure industry--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Performing arts--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

xii, 304 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Other Title:

From music halls to the seaside to football, how the Victorians invented mass entertainment

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]

Summary:

The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the nineteenth century's growing industrialized class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their desires were satiated by determined entrepreneurs building new venues for popular amusement. Contrary to their reputation as dour, buttoned-up prudes, the Victorians reveled in these newly created "palaces of pleasure." In this vivid, captivating book, Lee Jackson charts the rise of well-known institutions such as gin palaces, music halls, seaside resorts and football clubs, as well as the more peculiar thrills of the pleasure-garden and international expo, from parachuting monkeys to human zoos. He explores how vibrant mass entertainment came to dominate leisure time and how the attempts of religious groups and secular improvers to curb "immorality" in the pub, music hall, and dance hall faltered in the face of commercial success. The Victorians' unbounded love of leisure created a nationally significant and influential economic force: the entertainment industry.

Contents:

List of illustrations

Acknowledgements

A note on money

Introduction or, Expensive and dangerous amusements

I. The gin palace or, The abodes of suicide

II. The free-and-easy or, The glorious Apollo

III. The music hall or, He slept on the piano

IV. The dancing-room or, The way of the whirled

V. The pleasure garden or, The midnight roysterers

VI. The exhibition ground or, The city of side-shows

VII. The seaside or, A triumphal car for Neptune

VIII. The football field or, To brutalise the game

Conclusion or, The murderer of though

Endnotes

Bibliography

Index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1924 Book Fund.

ISBN:

030022463X

9780300224634

OCLC:

1052847839