ABSTRACT
The most explicit debate about Victorianism has centered on sexual standards. Some Victorian popularizers, writing for a wide middle-class audience, frowned on sexuality, particularly for women, leading to assumptions that Victorian culture was strikingly prudish. But other popularizers, while warning against sexual excess, recognized the validity of sexuality within marriage; and middle-class couples seem to have developed some latitude in their interpretation of sexual norms. Victorianism, in sum, is not always easy to capture, particularly when treated as part of social rather than purely intellectual history.
