1895: Drama, Disaster and Disgrace in Late Victorian Britain

Nicholas Freeman

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November, 2011
Cloth, 256 pages, 9 b+w illustrations
ISBN: 978-0-7486-4056-0
Edinburgh University Press
$105.00

This book explores the lasting cultural and political impact of the historical events of this remarkable year, 1895.

"Kill the bugger!"

So read one telegram to the Marquess of Queensberry before his legal battle with Oscar Wilde in the spring of 1895. Today's readers often see the Wilde case as dramatising the intolerance and cruelty of late-Victorian life, but what was its contemporary significance? What was it like to live in Britain in 1895? Which stories, personalities and events really captured the headlines? From the insomniac Prime Minister’s obsession with winning the Derby amidst a government in disarray, to unrest in the South African colonies, to the theft of the Football Association Cup, Nicholas Freeman shows how the Wilde scandal was just one aspect of a uniquely turbulent year.

Related Subjects

• European and British Literature

Series

• Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture (Edinburgh University Press)

About the Author

Nicholas Freeman is senior lecturer in English at Loughborough University.

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