The Victorian World Picture - Softcover

How did the Victorians come to grips with the vastly changing world in which they found themselves? This magnificent book, from the Whitbread Prize-winning author David Newsome, lays bare the Victorian mindset.

‘David Newsome’s Victorian World Picture... attempts to plait together all the sights, thoughts, smells and joys of the British people under Victoria... Newsome’s awesome understanding of the continuities and the gaps between one corner of Victoria’s kingdom and another allows him to paint a picture which is broad and detailed, general and refined... For anyone wanting to find a place of engagement, Newsome’s book is a good place to start.’ Kathryn Hughes, Daily Telegraph

‘Thorough and timely... Mr Newsome certainly understands the Victorians... The author has read so widely and thought so extensively about his subject that he writes with great authority. He also writes exceptionally well... A highly readable and informative book.’ Simon Heffer, Observer

‘Newsome draws on an amazingly wide stock of references and incidents to flesh out his history, and makes good use of novels to illustrate points... [He] has succeeded in painting his Victorian world picture in its many vibrant colours.’ Economist

"David Newsome's 'Victorian World Picture '...attempts to plait together all the sights, thoughts, smells and joys of the British people under Victoria... Newsome's awesome understanding of the continuities and the gaps between one corner of Victoria's kingdom and another allows him to paint a picture which is broad and detailed, general and refined. With grace and tact he uses the best of the specialist's research to show a Victorian Britain which is patchier than the one we have fallen into imagining...For anyone wanting to find a place of engagement, Newsome's book is a good place to start"
KATHRYN HUGHES ' Daily Telegraph '

"Thorough and timely...The author has read so widely and thought so extensively about his subject that he writes with great authority. He also writes exceptionally well...A highly readable and informative book."
SIMON HEFFER ' Observer '

"Newsome's achievement is to make you realise the seriousness of what lay at stake. In this, as much as its carefully selected details, ' The Victorian World Picture ' is a synthesis of particular brilliance."
D.J. TAYLOR ' Literary Review '

"Sparkles with delightful stories on every page...This rich and readable book seems much longer than it really is because of the wealth of anecdotes and information it contains...[NEWSOME] has an uncanny knack for cataloguing without being dogmatic, for labelling with originality, for making order out or the kaleidoscopic debris that a society leaves in its wake."
ALDERTO MANGUEL ' Spectator '

" An absorbing, elegant, beautifully managed narrative."
A. C. GRAYLING ' Financial Times '

"The most engagingly readable, the most sympathetic, the most intelligent historian of the nineteenth century."
A.N. WILSON