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captlychee's review
3.0
This is a well-researched collectioj of anecdotes and newspaper stories form the Victorian era, focussed mainly on the US but with some UK stories, too, detailing Victorian attitudes to death and all things connected ot it, including spiritualism, spirit photography, the treatment of the poor after death, cosmetology and grief, among other things.
Some of the stories are quite moving, some funny, a couple genuinely creepy.
It also comes with a very good bibliography which inludes links to websites, that you can just click to if you're using the right model Kindle. Since I judge every bibvliography by whether it includes books I've previously read on the subject, this bibliography gets an A for including [a:Jessica Mitford|24401|Jessica Mitford|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1196207252p2/24401.jpg]'s
Some of the stories are quite moving, some funny, a couple genuinely creepy.
It also comes with a very good bibliography which inludes links to websites, that you can just click to if you're using the right model Kindle. Since I judge every bibvliography by whether it includes books I've previously read on the subject, this bibliography gets an A for including [a:Jessica Mitford|24401|Jessica Mitford|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1196207252p2/24401.jpg]'s
liadanblue's review
5.0
I have been fascinated with death and all it encompasses since I was a little girl. Some of my favorite reads are books that touch on the history and customs surrounding funerals and post mortem rituals. While I wish the layout was done a bit differently, this is an excellent look at the Victorian fascination with death.
eustasskid's review
4.0
this book was really interesting!! i just wish it had more photos included but other than that i loved it! my favorite chapter was entitled, "died of lizards: strange deaths from poisoned stockings to self decapitation"
caitlinejones's review
5.0
A great resource of newspaper articles, journals, facts, and satire from an era with a fascination around death. American and European alike, it contains fantastic information about practices and vanacular. Won't soon forget about mourning cigarettes and deaths by way of novel.
geertje's review against another edition
This book is not what I thought it would be. I made it about 15% in, I believe. I thought it would be an exploration and analysis of Victorian death culture. Instead, it is more like a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and interesting stories relating to Victorian death culture. Those are interesting in and of themselves, of course, and probably of worth to people doing research into this (and should I ever write of this topic, I will most certainly read more of this book) but it is not what I am looking for right now.
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