1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910466132703321

Autore

Crone Rosalind

Titolo

Violent Victorians : popular entertainment in nineteenth-century London / / Rosalind Crone

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Manchester, [England] ; ; New York, New York : , : Manchester University Press, , 2012

[Place of distribution not identified] : , : Palgrave Macmillan, , [date of distribution not identified]

©2012

ISBN

0-7190-9505-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (321 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

306

Soggetti

Violence in popular culture - England - London - History - 19th century

Theater - England - London - History - 19th century

Amusements - England - London - History - 19th century

Electronic books.

London (England) Social life and customs 19th century

London (England) History 1800-1950

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sommario/riassunto

We are often told that the Victorians were far less violent than their forbears: over the course of the nineteenth century, violent sports were mostly outlawed, violent crime, including homicide, notably declined, and punishments were hidden from public view within prison walls. They were also much more respectable, and actively sought orderly, uplifting, domestic and refined pastimes. Yet these were the very same people who celebrated the exceptionally violent careers of anti-heroes such as the brutal puppet Punch and the murderous barber Sweeney Todd. By drawing attention to the wide range of gruesome, bloody and confronting amusements patronised by ordinary Londoners this book challenges our understanding of Victorian society and culture. From the turn of the nineteenth century, graphic, yet orderly, 're-enactments' of



high level violence flourished in travelling entertainments, penny broadsides, popular theatres, cheap instalment fiction and Sunday newspapers.