First published in 1978, this book explores everyday Victorian likes and dislikes, manners, fashions, ideals and illusions. It discusses their changing attitudes to women, children, the poor, the common soldier and their country. It explains the rise and fall of home entertainment, the growth of soccer, racing and cricket to national sports, the rise of public schools and new professions as well as the appeal of missionary work. It is argued that all this happened not because the Victorians were fools, hypocrites or villains, but because they sensibly adapted themselves to peculiar and novel circumstances. This title will be of interest to students of history.

Wilson singles out those whose lives illuminate the 19th century--Darwin, Marx, Gladstone, Kipling, and others--and explains through these signature lives how Victorian England started a revolution that still hasn't ended. of illustrations.