ABSTRACT
The Routledge Handbook of Victorian Scandals in Literature and Culture exposes, explores, and examines what Victorians once considered flagrant breaches of decorum. Infringements that were fantasized through artforms or were actually committed exceeded entertaining parlor gossip; once in print they were condemned as socially contaminative but were also consumed as delightfully sensational. Written by scholars in diverse disciplines, this volume:
- Demonstrates that spreading scandals seemed to have been one of the most entertaining sources of activities but were also normative efforts made by the Victorians to ensure conformity of decorum.
- Provides a broad spectrum of infractions that were considered scandalous to the Victorians.
- Identifies Victorian transgressions that made the news and that may still shock modern readers.
- Covers a gamut of moral infractions and transgressions either practiced, rumored, or fantasized in art forms.
This handbook is an invaluable resource about Victorian literature, art, and culture which challenges its readers to ponder perplexing questions about how and why some scandals were perpetrated and propagated in the nineteenth century while others were not, and what the controversies reveal about the human condition that persists beyond Victoria’s reign of propriety.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|158 pages
Chapters 1–7
chapter 3|23 pages
Reading Between the Lines
part 2|242 pages
Chapters 8–20
chapter 11|18 pages
The Cause Célèbre of the Year, If Not the Decade
chapter 13|18 pages
A Poor Gamble
chapter 14|17 pages
“A Voice from the Grave”
chapter 15|25 pages
Poisonous Words
part 3|174 pages
Chapters 21–30