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Search tags: Victorian-Age
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review 2022-04-28 15:15
ENRAPTURED by Jayne Fresina
Enraptured - Jayne Fresina

Harry Blackwood comes to London to return a portrait to Louisa Devereaux. Unfortunately, he cannot as she has recently died. Instead, he returns it to her daughter Christina who has taken over the male brothel her mother owned. Both are attracted to the other. Christina asks him to take her to a ball given by her father. Harry agrees but finds out the reason and is reluctantly. Harry finds himself unable to stay away from Christina, so he leaves London and returns home. Will they remain apart?

 

I enjoyed this story. I laughed as Christina and Harry got under each other's skins. Both say what they mean. Both are determined not to let the other get their way. Love does get to them though and they have to decide whether to trust their heads or their hearts. I was glad with what they chose. I look forward to the other books in the series.

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review 2022-03-25 00:33
THE GOVERNESS' EXAMINATION by Tamsin Taite
The Governess' Examination: A Victorian Medical BDSM Tale (Virginia's Awakening Book 1) - Tamsin Taite

Virginia's aunt has found a governess position for her. She must be given a medical exam to ensure she is free from illness and depravity. Dr. Talbot conducts the exam and Virginia is worried that the doctor and her aunt's maid will be able to tell how into the exam she is. What can she do since she wants the governess position?

 

I enjoyed this quick read. Virginia is afraid of being exposed as a wanton, but she likes what the doctor and the maid are doing to her. She wants to go to the Hayes' home. She wishes that Mr. Hayes had stayed. I liked that Virginia, though naive, had some inkling of what was happening to her. I liked Virginia. I'm not so sure I liked the doctor. I look forward to reading what happens next to Virginia.

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review 2021-08-08 04:06
UNFIT TO PRINT by KJ Charles
Unfit to Print - K.J. Charles

Gil has been requested to come to his half-brother's funeral. He refuses until asked by his cousin Percy who shows him his half-brother's book and photography collection then asks him to dispose of it of which Gil can have any money he makes from it. He strikes a deal with Percy and then, with Percy's help, loads it and takes it back to his bookstore. Meanwhile a family asks Vikmar, a solicitor and Gil's old friend who thinks Gil is dead, to look for their 16-year-old son. Vik comes knocking at Gil's door and is shocked to find Gil alive and well. Resentment is brought out as they reacquaint themselves with each other. Old feelings are also brought up. The two men band together to find the boy as well as a few other things. Will they find the boy? Will they solve their differences and pasts? Will this bring them together or apart?

 

I liked this story. I liked the historical element of it where people's behavior and actions can put them in jail. From the little I have read from that time period she gets it right when it came to unfit to print books, photographs, and book stores. I appreciated how Gil points out, how on the bench, a judge takes the moral high ground while he comes to Gil for his fix of books. Hypocrisy has been around a long time and few are immune regardless of station or class. I felt it was important the Vikram points out to Gil about the exploitations of those poorer than the upper classes and how they are used and abandoned and forgotten. I really enjoyed the scene when we meet Vikram.

 

This book and characters captured this era very well. Once Gil realizes the importance of the exploitation in his life and in Vikram's client's lives, he changes his mind and helps Vikram. He also does a lot of thinking about how he and Vikram can be together. He makes a lot of major decisions. I look forward to more books by K. J. Charles.

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review 2020-08-31 05:52
From novelty to ubiquity
Cycling in Victorian Ireland - Brian Griffin

Given its ubiquity today, it can be difficult to appreciate how revolutionary the bicycle was when it was developed in the 19th century. In an era when most people were dependent upon walking to get to where they were going, the bicycle gave people greater individual mobility than had even been possible without a horse. Thanks to its low cost and the empowerment it offered, it took less than a generation for bicycles to go from a faddish novelty to a mode of transportation commonplace on the streets of cities throughout the Western world.

 

The introduction of the bicycle took place at a time when mass media covered new developments in almost obsessive detail. Brian Griffin drew upon this abundant record to delineate the early history of cycling in Ireland from the introduction of the first velocipede to the widespread adoption of the safety bicycle. It's an impressively detailed work that identifies by name the first bicyclists, traces the establishment of clubs and some of their key members, and describes society's evolving reaction to bicycles as their riders carved out a place for themselves on the roads and in daily life. This he sees not just in their employment by the hobbyist and the well-to-do, but their use by constables, civil servants, and priests in the performance of their daily duties. As Griffin makes clear, by the end of the century the bicycle enjoyed a prominent place in both practical activities and in the recreational life of the Irish.

 

Griffin's meticulous coverage of the bicycle's emergence in Ireland is a great strength of the book, as he captures within these details how people came to terms with the new technology of personal transport. He leavens this with humorous stories and a generous supply of details that capture the sometimes freakish novelty and occasional frustration with which people reacted to the bicycle. Yet Griffin rarely strays beyond the specifics to consider more generally the impact of cycling upon Ireland, such as in how it affected social mores or people's sense of time and space. It's an unfortunate gap in what is otherwise an interesting and even amusing study of the emergence of cycling in 19th century Ireland, one that should be read by anyone with a passing interest in either the subject or the era.

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review 2020-07-24 05:00
When artists were kings
The Holland Park Circle: Artists and Victorian Society - Caroline Dakers

In the second half of the 19th century, an informal group of artists coalesced in the northwestern London neighborhood of Kensington. Known as the Holland Park Circle, they often had different styles and subject matter but were united by geography and benefited collectively from a growing status of artists in the Victorian era. Thanks to their prosperity they built a series of houses in the neighborhood that both reflected their status and gave them opportunities to mingle with the wealthy and well-connected members of Victorian society, many of whom served as patrons and subjects.

 

Caroline Dakers’s book about the group functions on a number of different levels. In part it serves as a group biography, tracing the lives of such members as George Frederick Watts, Frederic Leighton, Hamo Thornycroft, and others, all of whom were esteemed in their day for their work. In tracing their lives and associations, though, it also serves as a biography of the neighborhood in which they lived. Carved out of the grounds surrounding Holland House, the rapidly developing community served as a crossroads of high Victorian society, where the artists socialized with both titled lords and the newly emergent class of wealthy manufacturers and upper-class professionals. Yet throughout this Dakers never loses sight of the art itself, as she uses the lives and the setting as context for her description of the artists’ works and their reception by their audience. It’s a masterful work that highlights effectively the intersection between art, commerce, and society in the Victorian world, and is rewarding reading for anyone interested in the era.

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