Love in the Time of Victoria: Sexuality and Desire Among Working-Class Men and Women in Nineteenth-Century London FROM THE PUBLISHER
There has been a great deal written on the secret longings and sexual hypocrisy of the Victorian era's upper crust, but almost nothing has chronicled the erotic desires and sexuality of London's working class. Now, in this painstakingly researched book, their touching and emotional stories can be told.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In the popular mind, the coarse, licentious working classes of Victorian England wallowed in sins of the flesh. A very different picture emerges, however, from the archives of London's Foundling Hospital, where French historian Barret-Ducrocq combed documents of unwed mothers releasing babies for adoption, love letters and testimonies. Although she found evidence aplenty of adultery, prostitution and concubinage, the bestial, anarchic behavior so often attributed to the laboring class is nowhere perceptible. In most cases, a prolonged ``graduated courtship'' preceded sex. Women and men upheld marriage as an ideal, with extramarital sex viewed as an ``arrangement'' for a certain stage of life. This highly readable narrative pulls back a curtain on Victorian sexuality, subverting the stereotyped images of prudish bourgeoisie and lewd lower class. (Sept.)
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