Post-Victorian?

Stephen Jones on Victorian things, trends and fashions.

We have Victorian values, for better or for worse depending upon your political complexion. We have Victorian morality, oppressive or responsible, depending upon your point of view. We have Victorian art, which the average gallery visitor finds amusing, and Victorian literature, which is to most people Dickens or Trollope. However, we do not have Victorian history: instead we have nineteenth-century political and social history, which nobody questions should be taken seriously. Is this because we do not, in general, talk about 'Victorian' history? If we spoke only of nineteenth-century morality, art or values, would the themes he taken any more seriously, would they be regarded as any less odious?

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