Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum

By: Kathryn Hughes

Narrated by: Jenny Funnell

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

A groundbreaking account of what it was like to live in a Victorian body from one of our best historians.

Why did the great philosophical novelist George Eliot feel so self-conscious that her right hand was larger than her left?

Exactly what made Darwin grow that iconic beard in 1862, a good five years after his contemporaries had all retired their razors?

Who knew Queen Victoria had a personal hygiene problem as a young woman and the crisis that followed led to a hurried commitment to marry Albert?

What did John Sell Cotman, a handsome drawing room operator who painted some of the most exquisite watercolours the world has ever seen, feel about marrying a woman whose big nose made smart people snigger?

How did a working-class child called Fanny Adams disintegrate into pieces in 1867 before being reassembled into a popular joke, one we still reference today, but would stop, appalled, if we knew its origins?

Kathryn Hughes follows a thickened index finger or deep baritone voice into the realms of social history, medical discourse, aesthetic practise and religious observance – its language is one of admiring glances, cruel sniggers, an implacably turned back. The result is an eye-opening, deeply intelligent, groundbreaking account that brings the Victorians back to life and helps us understand how they lived their lives.

©2017 Kathryn Hughes (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"This is a wonderful book, so masterful and scholarly and wise, there will never need to be another. Hughes is an elegant writer, and a capable digger; no stone, however small or inaccessible, is left unturned." (Rachel Cooke, Observer)

"This is a brilliant biography, which tells the absorbing, strange and sad story with great aplomb. Kathryn Hughes has seen quite rightly, that one of the most important parts of the story is what happened after Isabella's death and, indeed, Sam's, and the life of Mrs Beeton is continued to the present day. It is so magical a feat of imagination, of intricate learning lightly worn, that you know that Kathryn Hughes would write a wonderful novel. But this splendid book is as good as any." ( Spectator)

"Seriously scholarly yet nonetheless accessible to the general listener...fascinating." (Margaret Forster, Sunday Telegraph)

Riviting in Areas; Repetitive Elsewhere

This was a fascinatingly riveting listen, particularly the last chapter on Victorian pedophilia and murder. I recommend slugging through the early chapters to get here, as it is by far the best chapter. By and large, Hughes' research was fresh and interesting, mainly because of the angle her book takes, or its focus on different body parts. In areas, however, the book did come across as a retelling of those same catchy Victorian stories of prudery and sensation that you will find in most histories of the Victorian period, and some chapters (namely the ones on Queen Victoria) seemed fairly stale, perhaps the makers of the television miniseries "Victoria" ripped a bit off from Hughes here, which made the early chapters of the book seem like a synopsis of a period drama plot. Having said this, for a novice of Victorian culture or for someone grounded in the history of the Victorian period i recommend this book, but i can guarantee you will get a little peeved off at the author's assumption at the reader's complete ignorance. If you can look past this, "Victorians Undone" does not shy away from the harsh realities of Victorian life, and you will find much about Victorian sexuality, prostitution, science, beards, and bitches, that is new.