The Victorian Celebration of Death By James Stevens Curl. 9780750938730

The Victorian Celebration of Death [Sep 01, 2004] Curl, James Stevens\n\nProduct Overview\nIn this beautifully illustrated and well-researched book Professor Curl has\nrescued much fascinating material from undeserved oblivion, and his work fills\na genuine gap. From humble working-class exequies to the massive outpouringof\ngrief at the State funerals of Wellington and Queen Victoria herself, The\nVictorian Celebration of Death covers an immense canvas. It describes the\nchange in sensibility that led to a new tenderness towards the dead; the\nhistory of the urban cemeteries with their architecture and landscapes; the\nephemera of death and dying; State funerals as national spectacles; and the\nutilitarian reactions towards the end of the nineteenth century. Combining wit\nwith compassion, Curl wears his learning lightly, and his taste for the eerie\nis delicately balanced by this literary personality. He has resurrected many\nvaluable and extremely interesting aspects of nineteenth-