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A review by circlesofflame
Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum by Kathryn Hughes
2.0
This was such an odd book. It's narrative voice was trying to go for approachable with an edge of humour, but ended up sounding sneering and as if the author was looking down on the people she was discussing, with a negative focus on weight and body type and unnecessarily coarse language, with an odd narrative voice when talking about horrible things like rape not through quotes but seemingly the author's own opinion. There's a lot of supposition on the author's part that isn't backed up by historical sources too.
Many other reviewers have spoken about the inclusion of facts that are widely known about the people discussed in this book. My reading experience didn't suffer due to that - clearly I'm not as well-informed as others who have read this book - but I will say that some sections really dragged due to a wealth of unnecessary information or uninteresting avenues for discussion. I learnt more about things of which I wasn't aware, but it made me want to read more about certain things from a more balanced standpoint than the one communicated in this book.
I had such high hopes for this and was so excited to read it, but this one was a bit of a letdown for me.
Many other reviewers have spoken about the inclusion of facts that are widely known about the people discussed in this book. My reading experience didn't suffer due to that - clearly I'm not as well-informed as others who have read this book - but I will say that some sections really dragged due to a wealth of unnecessary information or uninteresting avenues for discussion. I learnt more about things of which I wasn't aware, but it made me want to read more about certain things from a more balanced standpoint than the one communicated in this book.
I had such high hopes for this and was so excited to read it, but this one was a bit of a letdown for me.