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Victorian Sensation
By Michael Diamond
published by Anthem Press at £24.95
Reviewed by Philip Fisher
Dateline: 23rd April, 2003
Those of us who were bored by a history at school will find Michael
Diamond's new book Victorian Sensation an absolute revelation.
This story of "the Spectacular, the Shocking and the Scandalous
in Nineteenth-Century Britain" is nothing if not entertaining and
very readable.
This book is also very strong on drama and theatre. In some ways, it
was lucky that there was any. Every play had to be "Licensed by
the Lord Chamberlain to the actual and responsible manager". Worse,
when the 1856 fire burned down at the Covent Garden Theatre, religious
superstar, Charles Spurgeon, the Billy Graham of his day, condemned
it as the "judgement of God on the wicked theatre-goers".
Diamond may have chosen to make it look academic with notes demonstrating
his incredible research, but read as a guide to the social life of the
average Victorian, it is fascinating to the general reader. The main
reason for this is that as he points out in the introduction, "Between
the Victorian era and our own day, everything has changed, and nothing
has changed".
The author ensures that the common man is remembered by publishing
many quotes from songs, ballads and musical ditties not to mention the
single page broadsides that took an issue and sensationalised it. He
also includes illustrations, posters and cartoons from his private collection,
which give a genuine period feel. The front cover itself is splendid
representation of a scene from Edmund Falconer's Peep o' Day.
Sensations that could have filled dozen tabloid newspapers were fuelled
by an increasingly powerful and hypocritical press. In addition, the
Theatres, often frequented by The Royals including an apparently philandering
Prince of Wales were the 19th Century equivalent of The News at 10.
It is clear from this book that if one were transported back to the
19th century, everything would be very familiar. The government had
problems with both local Republicans and the Irish, political spin was
rife and people really knew how to make a fast buck - royal tat a speciality.
The two stars in the money-making field were PT Barnum (with his "greatest
show on earth" including his associate, the 2 ft tall Tom Thumb)
and Charles Dickens, who eventually killed himself with the effort to
be put into his reading tours with nightly audiences of up to 2,000.
The book covers almost all areas of Sensation although perhaps surprisingly,
sport is omitted. Chapters range from royalty and murder through politics,
religion and sex to the arts. We learn the source of Oscar Wilde's important
Ernest in a sad homosexual scandal of the day. Such a foible was punishable
by life imprisonment or the death sentence! The rise and fall of the
great man himself is also covered.
While there are separate sections on The Sensation Novel, The Sensation
Drama and Stars of Entertainment, they are all of great interest for
those working in theatre. They provide both historical information and
also sources for future productions.
The key to Sensation Drama was an expensively-designed single major
scene that would shock and thrill its audience. Perhaps the best of
these was in After Dark where a Metropolitan Line train almost
killed the hero.
Many of the plays and novels of the time sound fascinating although
they were often shallow and melodramatic. As Diamond remarks, "The
motive force of sensation drama was not art but profit" and the
main audience was working class. For them, this was the cinema or football
of their day.
The major playwright of the period was Dion Boucicault, who produced
and starred in many of the best-written and most successful plays. The
two remembered today are The Colleen Bawn and The Shaughraun.
He was given a good run for his money by novelists such as Wilkie Collins,
Mary Braddon and Charles Reade whose work was adapted for the stage.
At the first night of Charles Reade's It's Never too Late to Mend,
"the venerable drama critic of the "Morning Advertiser"
rose from his seat in the stalls to voice his disgust" at a prison
scene. He got bested by the actor-manager, inevitably playing the hero,
who pointed out that he was an invited guest who hadn't paid for his
seat! Perhaps sadly, after press demands that he apologise, he did.
The other theatrical revelations centre on the actors and actresses.
We hear of Henry Irving who single-handedly invented the modern Hamlet
and of the actresses Rachel and Sarah Bernhardt who each performed exclusively
in French presumably to the bewilderment of their audiences.
If you're looking for a little light relief from contemporary life,
the source of your next play whether as writer, director or producer
or wish to research the history of Victorian foibles, Victorian sensation
is well worth a visit. As Michael Diamond says "All human life
is here. Births, affairs and deaths. Youth to age".
You
can buy Victorian
Sensation from Amazon for £17.47.
Articles Indices:
Articles from 2003
Articles from 2002
Articles from 2001
Articles from 2000
Articles from 1999
Articles from 1998
Articles from 1997
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