Does anyone know anything funny/wierd about the Victorians?
2006-11-09 05:58:59 · 6 answers · asked by lady_s_hazy 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
jbreck..., i know the funny stuff is not going to sum up the Victorian era, Ive studied it in the past, but I'm getting these facts for an English class where i just need some basic, intriguing things about them as a sort of... fun intro to Victorian poetry. Everyone else, thanks. Though whats the point in saying 'no'? just dont say anything!
2006-11-09 10:21:16 · update #1
The Victorians did lots of funny/weird things, but I can't think of them offhand. Of course, Queen Victoria did not think they were funny. She was not amused.
There's a seres of history books called "Horrible Romans" or whatever. I imagine there's probably one called "Horrible Victorians". Look up amazon.com
2006-11-09 06:29:12 · answer #1 · answered by Philosophical Fred 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They enjoyed the last of the Empire's wealth, so they had a large middle class. What most people miss when they read Sherlock Holmes is they had two mail deliveries. We overlook "it came by the morning post" and "it came by late post" when we read the lit from that time without grasping the significance.
PBS ran a documentary about a modern family re-living those times. Don't know, but the PBS website might have link or info. Monday was laundry day and it took 12 hours.
Osar Wilde had a friend gleefully show him a classified ad for a lonely hearts advertisement. The ad specified a widow with a child who would enjoy whippings. The society of the times was rather sadistic.
2006-11-09 14:09:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It seems to me that you're coming into this with the wrong angle. You seem to assume that there was one culture, one shared set of beliefs- and that the specific consequences of these beliefs are enuogh to make judgements about the entirety of 19th century society. For example, the myth that some people placed skirts on chair legs, through similarity to human legs (this never happened) is used to make judgements about, and affirm to ourselves beliefs about Victorian society.
There never was an entity called 'Victorian society'. The identification with 'empire' did not appear until the early 20th century, when that world economic position was under threat (Hobsbawm, The Invention of Tradition). There were great debates on the role of women (where do you think the suffragettes came from?), the working class (Marx was as much a victorian as anyone else, as was Gladstone, Rowntree and Booth)- not monolithic beliefs.
Sorry if it sounds like a rant, but I've wanted to get that off my chest...
2006-11-09 14:07:29 · answer #3 · answered by Jim 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Historians claim that Queen Victoria was an illegitimate child of her mother and someone other then her presumed father (who was one of the sons of King George the 3rd), who was a homo. It is interesting that there is a book, according to which Penis Clinton is a result of an extra marital affair too. Both of them are lovers of Islamic fanatics and enemies of Serbs and Russians.
2006-11-09 14:08:05 · answer #4 · answered by Avner Eliyahu R 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
those wigs they wore. mice/rats loved to hide in them.
they didn't take baths often.
2006-11-09 14:07:03 · answer #5 · answered by absolutbianca 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No
2006-11-09 14:00:52 · answer #6 · answered by Me 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋