The Year That Shaped the Victorian Age
Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845
£29.99
- Author: Michael Wheeler, University of Southampton
- Date Published: December 2022
- availability: In stock
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781009268851
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What was special about 1845 and why does it deserve particular scrutiny? In his much-anticipated new book, one of the leading authorities on the Victorian age argues that this was the critical year in a decade which witnessed revolution on continental Europe, the threat of mass insurrection at home and radical developments in railway transport, communications, religion, literature and the arts. The effects of the new poor law now became visible in the workhouses; a potato blight started in Ireland, heralding the Great Famine; and the Church of England was rocked to its foundations by John Henry Newman's conversion to Roman Catholicism. What Victorian England became was moulded, says Michael Wheeler, in the crucible of 1845. Exploring pivotal correspondence, together with pamphlets, articles and cartoons, the author tells the riveting story of a seismic epoch through the lives, loves and letters of leading contemporaneous figures.
Read more- · Through forensic use of micro-history bathes the whole Victorian age in brilliant new light · Shows how the year 1845 is the prism through which later Victorian history can be understood · Uses the lives, loves and letters of prominent Victorians like Charles Dickens, William Ewart Gladstone, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning to illuminate the broader history of the era · Michael Wheeler is one of the most celebrated writers and commentators on the period
Reviews & endorsements
'This lively account shows how a single year came to epitomise so many of the overarching themes of the Victorian age. An inviting read even for those already familiar with the episodes depicted, this is a meticulous and thoroughly-researched tour de force of scholarship by an author who always has new things to say.' Rohan McWilliam, Professor of Modern British History, Anglia Ruskin University
See more reviews'Remarkably informative, interesting, well-researched, and well-expressed, this study complements the many existing books on Victorian life and culture with both well- known and little-known material approached from a fresh point of view and supplemented in places by the use of hitherto unpublished documents.' Rosemary Ashton, Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature, University College London
'Wheeler is a fine cultural historian, and anyone who picks up this book will learn a great deal about the figures he has chosen … (his) study is careful and consistently interesting.' Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, The Spectator
'In this enthralling study, Wheeler argues that it was in 'the crucible of 1845' that Victorian England came to define itself … Reading Wheeler's chapter on … John Henry Newman - so well does he tell the familiar story - it is as if we are hearing it for the first time.' John Pridmore, Church Times
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×Product details
- Date Published: December 2022
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781009268851
- length: 280 pages
- dimensions: 223 x 146 x 31 mm
- weight: 0.7kg
- availability: In stock
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I. Public Scandals:
1. Opening Mazzini's mail: Sir James Graham and the Post Office
2. The railway juggernaut: Delane, Dickens and the press
3. Poor law bastille: the Andover workhouse scandal
Part II. Private Lives:
4. Love by post: Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning
5. Letters from the Continent: Ruskin in Italy
6. Letters of the living and the dead: Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle
Part III. Oxford Movements:
7. Established church in crisis: William George Ward and the Oxford Movement
8. A dangerous correspondence: Newman on the road to Rome
Part IV. Irish Questions:
9. Educating papist priests: Gladstone and the Maynooth grant
10. From our own Commissioner: Daniel O'Connell and The Times
11. A prime minister resigns: Peel and the Corn Laws
Afterword.
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