Victorian Values: Personalities and Perspectives in Nineteenth Century Society

Because of Queen Victoria's long reign, we distinguish between early, middle and late-Victorian, but in a period of continuing change there was never any full agreement about what Victorian values really were, and during the late-Victorian years there was a sustained attack on those values which had been dominant during the mid-Victorian period. Whatever the reasons for the current interest in Victorian values, we are still not out of a society and culture which feels it necessary to appeal to them. This collection of articles on Victorian values, reprinted from "History Today", focuses on the diverse experience of Victorian life and society, including the double standards in relation to sex and the psychological issues of character and will.