Queen Victoria reigned for sixty-four years, and in those years Britain
changed enormously. Not only were there many scientific and
technological advances, such as the spread of railways, a transatlantic
telegraph cable and Darwin's theories on the origins of man, but there
were also momentous social and cultural developments, including the
advancement of women's education and the founding of charities. This was
all set against a backdrop of vast wealth and appalling poverty,
devastating famine and war, and the contrast of life in huge city slums
and changing country landscapes. These aspects of life were described in
writing by journalists, essayists, social commentators, poets and
children. Novels such as Black Beauty and The Water Babies pricked the
conscience of the nation. Women travelled: Florence Nightingale to the
Crimea to reform nursing practices, Sarah Wilson to South Africa where
she was the first female war correspondent. Hippolyte Taine, the French
historian and philosopher, was fascinated by what he found in England,
and Fredrick Engels developed much of his political theory as a result
of working in his family's cotton mill in Manchester. A Year in the Life
of Victorian Britain covers an enormous range of subjects written by a
wide range of people. It spans the length of Victoria's reign and
includes an entry for every day of the year. Famous names and unfamiliar
ones, from Victoria herself to the shy Anon, are all represented in this
rich anthology.
