BEYOND THE VEIL: The Victorian Obsession With Death and Mourning
PAUL GAMBINO
Frances Lincoln Ltd (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$29.00 all editions, available now
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Beyond the Veil is a visual exploration of Victorian mourning, charting the often peculiar and at times macabre ways of how the living memorialize the dead.
Beyond the Veil is a visual tour through the curious history of how we deal with death—the grief and mourning, the funerals, symbols, and ceremonies.
From Victorian England across to the US, learn about the often peculiar and at times macabre ways of how the living memorialize the dead.
Humans have always had ways of marking death, but in Victorian England death became a morbid obsession that went global—death was as much ‘celebrated’ as it was a source of fear and sadness. Queen Victoria herself became a figurehead of grief after the death of her beloved Prince Albert in 1861. Her ensuing fascination with death took many visual forms—from her ritualized embrace of black clothing to the building of ostentatious monuments—and massively influenced cultural norms in both the UK and further afield.
The Victorians built complex cemeteries, collected precious memento mori, commissioned bizarre death portraits, and obsessed over the correct mourning attire and funerary protocol, while turn-of-the century America saw reflections of many of these cultural phenomena. The bestsellers of the period were often about life and death (think Frankenstein and Dracula), while the art, architecture, and style—with its often dark and heavy gothic overtones—revelled in the glamorization of death. Beyond the Veil brings this extraordinarily elaborate and stylised visual culture together while expertly explaining and elaborating on its most peculiar and fascinating aspects.
For example, it explores:
Beautifully illustrated throughout with archival photography, artworks and design,Beyond the Veil is a must-have for lovers of history, art, and the macabre. It invites readers to step into the shadows of the past and discover how Victorian mourning shaped our modern relationship with grief and remembrance.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Lovely, design-heavy gift book, perfect for your history-minded or Victorian-obsessed giftee's coffee table. It's nicely written, easy to read, but...crucially for a book on this subject that depends on the quality of its sources...has no notes or bibliography worth spending time on. I certainly don't expect academic-standard citations, but more than the absolute minimum should've been attainable.
My longstanding dislike of Queen Victoria...won't someone, anyone, write an alternate history where Princess Charlotte lives through bearing Leopold's son?...hit glowing hot hatred as I read about how her abused-child narcissism totally screwed the entire world while she pouted and shouted about her playtoy...sorry, husband...being taken from her before she was tired of him.
English society, and the broader colonial sphere in Scotland and Ireland, out into the wider Anglophone world, began to follow some truly weird death and mourning customs:
...because in the time before effective antibiotics, sanitation, and city planning, there was wide scope for mourning the loss of literally anyone close to you from some unexpected cause.
This chapter spread says it all:
As an illustrated overview of a subject that can easily consume academic careers, this is a successful book. As a beautiful gift object, it also succeeds. As a jumping-off point for looking into the truly obsessive, dysfunctional Victorian worldview, it does a fine job.
Altogether a book I'd think your serious-minded luxury-item-worthy giftee will like.
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