The Victorians

The Victorians invented themselves – writers invented the word 'Victorian' in 1851. They saw themselves as almost perfect – or at least creating a world that would be perfect soon.Queen Victoria had hardly died before historians started dismantling this illusion. Lytton Strachey (1918) portrayed 'eminent Victorians' such as Florence Nightingale as nasty hypocrites. Until the Second World War, 'Victorian' was used as an abuse word for something regarded as 'old-fashioned'.Writers and film-makers used – and still use – the Victorian era as a backdrop for 'Gothic' horror stories of vampires and werewolves. In these stories, the Victorians were reduced to ridiculous caricatures. The first Revisionists After the Second World War, 'revisionist' historians reinterpreted the Victorians. These historians lived in a prosperous, urban, industrialised world and they saw its origins in the Victorian age. Historians such as Asa Briggs (1959) presented the Victorian era as an 'Age of Improvement' – a time of transformation, comfort and confidence. The second Revisionists After the 1980s, some historians – reflecting the confused, sexualised modern world they were living in – reinterpreted the Victorians yet again.For these historians, the period was 'confused' – a time when pornography rubbed shoulders with prudery, and a gleaming Town Hall was built next to a slum. Some even argued that the 'Victorians' did not exist. For them, the early Victorians before 1880 were no different to the Georgians of the 18th century and the later Victorians after 1880 were no different to the Edwardians of the 20th century who followed them. Recent ideas Recently, however, some historians have disagreed. Matthew Sweet(2002) claims that the Victorians invented almost everything we enjoy today – from theme parks to shopping malls – and that we have only rubbished them to make ourselves seem more modern and sophisticated.And A N Wilson (2004) has shown how the Victorians were well aware of the contradictions of their own world – but were happy just to live with them.

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