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The Spectacle of Intimacy: A Public Life for the Victorian Family by Michael Levenson, Karen Chase
mkwojcie's review against another edition
5.0
"A more flexible notion of the public sphere is needed, one that recognizes how 'publicity' and collective revelation can also occur in small groups, around a fireside as well as in a courtroom. A society perfecting the forms of private pleasure repeatedly found in secrets exposed to view; it now remains for us to gaze at those gazing Victorians."
A remarkable (and, even more remarkably, entertaining) history of Victorian domestic ideology through the public events and figures that threw it into crisis. From the trials of Caroline Norton and Queen Victoria's Bedchamber Crisis to the lodging houses and sensational fantasies of bigamy, Chase and Levenson's study offers both insightful readings of well-known events and illuminating ones of new (to me, at least) incidents and materials. The discussion of the movement to repeal the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill and readings of what ideal architectural plans revealed about class and gender within the middle-class house were particularly fascinating!
A remarkable (and, even more remarkably, entertaining) history of Victorian domestic ideology through the public events and figures that threw it into crisis. From the trials of Caroline Norton and Queen Victoria's Bedchamber Crisis to the lodging houses and sensational fantasies of bigamy, Chase and Levenson's study offers both insightful readings of well-known events and illuminating ones of new (to me, at least) incidents and materials. The discussion of the movement to repeal the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill and readings of what ideal architectural plans revealed about class and gender within the middle-class house were particularly fascinating!
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