One hot summer Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the great stink of 1858
Book - 2017
London, 1858. Noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the sewage-filled Thames River, the year is otherwise little remembered. Ashton reveals that thanks to significant, if unrecognized, turning points the months from May to August turned out to be a summer of consequence. She mines Victorian letters and gossip, diaries, court records, newspapers, and other contemporary sources to uncover historically crucial moments in the lives of three protagonists: Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Disraeli. Invisible threads of connection among Londoners at every social level in 1858 bring the celebrated city and its citizens vibrantly to life.
- Subjects
- Published
-
New Haven :
Yale University Press
[2017]
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Physical Description
- viii, 338 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 314-320) and index.
- ISBN
- 9780300227260
- List of illustrations
- Prologue
- 1. 1858 in history
- Moments of consequence
- The rise of Disraeli
- Medicine and marriage
- Literature and art
- 2. May 1858
- Dickens in distress
- Derby Day
- Marriage mischief
- 3. June 1858, part I
- Darwin and the pursuit of science
- Dickens dissolves his marriage
- Midsummer madness
- Meltdown in Clubland
- 4. June 1858, part II
- The silver Thames
- Queen Victoria, Cruiser, and the Great Eastern
- Crinolineomania
- More marriage troubles
- Darwin's dilemma
- 5. July 1858
- Darwin in distress
- 'Mad' wives and vengeful husbands
- Disraeli tames the Thames
- Rothschild enters the Commons at last
- 6. July-August 1858
- Hot heads at the Garrick Club
- Dickens on tour
- The exploits of Dickens's Mr Stryver
- Disraeli's whitebait dinner
- 7. The aftermath of the hot summer
- The fallout from the Garrick Club affair
- Success and embarrassment for Dickens
- The end of the Robinson case
- Darwin triumphant
- Epilogue
- The year in pantomime
- One hot summer's consequences
- Endnotes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Review by Kirkus Book Review