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tazurrrnov's review
3.0
I was a big fan of Lutz's book on the "dangerous lover" and, as an even bigger fan of the Victorian era, I was so excited to read this. Unfortunately, this was kind of a confusing, badly organized read, and although I did get a lot of semi-valuable insight into the Victorian mindset, I was befuddled more than I was titillated or informed.
laura_sonja's review
4.0
this was fun! deborah lutz mentions in her postscript for the book that she wanted to “slip into disguise and stroll down a victorian london street at night” after she finished compiling stories for this book, and like, same, but i also now want to learn everything i can about the arts & crafts movement
robberbaroness's review
3.0
At its best when telling interesting stories about interesting people, but not so much when it's trying to make larger points about them.
upthescene's review
2.0
Interesting topic, terrible writing. This book read as if it were Lutz's barely-passing graduate thesis. It was riddled with difficult to read and strange grammar non-conventions. (My personal favorite, referring to all characters by all of their names: eg. to Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Rossetti, Gabriel, and Dante, often on the same page). The book is also missing a point. I'm still not really sure what she was trying to prove; it was more of an account of how several artists lived. She definitely could have used an outline. I only kept reading because I wanted to see how the people she discussed contributed to later society, but that was totally missing.
teashirts's review
2.0
I wanted to love this book, I really did. And I'm not sorry for reading it since much of the information contained therein is fascinating!
But -- and this is a big but -- Lutz's writing is impressively boring. It takes real talent to make information about porn boring, but she manages it. Despite the simple language used, it felt like reading the kind of textbook that you keep spacing out during to save your brain, but then have to go back and read again.
But -- and this is a big but -- Lutz's writing is impressively boring. It takes real talent to make information about porn boring, but she manages it. Despite the simple language used, it felt like reading the kind of textbook that you keep spacing out during to save your brain, but then have to go back and read again.
hannahjoy's review against another edition
Might come back to it later but just had to take a break for now
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