An energetic and exhilarating account of the Victorian entertainment industry, its extraordinary success and enduring impact The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the nineteenth century’s growing industrialized class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their every whim was satisfied by entrepreneurs building new venues for popular amusement. Contrary to their reputation as dour, buttoned-up prudes, the Victorians reveled in these newly created ‘palaces of pleasure’. In this vivid, captivating book, Lee Jackson charts the rise of well-known institutions such as gin palaces, music halls, seaside resorts and football clubs, as well as the more peculiar attractions of the pleasure garden and international exposition, ranging from parachuting monkeys and human zoos to theme park thrill rides. He explores how vibrant mass entertainment came to dominate leisure time and how the attempts of religious groups and secular improvers to curb ‘immorality’ in the pub, variety theater and dance hall faltered in the face of commercial success. The Victorians’ unbounded love of leisure created a nationally significant and influential economic force: the modern entertainment industry.

This book mainly addresses the position, function, influence, and values of folk oral literature in the history of Chinese literature. Divided into 14 chapters, it systematically covers central aspects of folklore literature such as ballads, folk songs, Bianwen, Zajuci, Guzici, Zhugongdiao, Sanqu, Baojuan, Tanci, Zidishu, and so on from the Pre-Qin to the late Qing Dynasties, filling several gaps in literary history studies. It is a comprehensive literary work, and many of the materials cited here are rare and difficult to find. In addition, the book proposes some important theories, especially six highly generalized qualities of folk literature, namely that it is: popular, collective, oral, fresh, effusive, and innovative. With detailed, extensive materials, and quotations, the book represents the most systematic and comprehensive work to date on ancient Chinese folk literature. It is mutually complementary with Guowei Wang’s A Textual Research of the Traditional Chinese Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and Xun Lu’s A Brief History of Chinese Fiction; all three works are regarded as the most essential classics for researching the history of Chinese literature.