#victorian

What the hell is this stuff?" he muttered, frowning at the oily spot on the linen cloth. "Pearlman slathered it on me this morning." "It's macassar oil. Gentlemen use it to keep their hair neat. Nicholas used it," she added pointedly. "Well, tomorrow he's giving it up. I smell like a rotten apple." "You do not. And I think it looks rather nice." He sent her an incredulous look. "I look like an otter. And everything I put my head against gets greasy." "That's why someone invented the antimacassar," she told him, almost smiling. "The-aha!" He laughed as he made the connection. "Of course. First they invent something stupid, then something ugly to make up for it. We live in a wondrous age, Annie. ↗

— Patricia Gaffney

#social-commentary #victorian-era #age

The world of shadows and superstition that was Victorian England, so well depicted in this 1871 tale, was unique. While the foundations of so much of our present knowledge of subjects like medicine, public health, electricity, chemistry and agriculture, were being, if not laid, at least mapped out, people could still believe in the existence of devils and demons. And why not? A good ghost story is pure entertainment. It was not until well into the twentieth century that ghost stories began to have a deeper significance and to become allegorical; in fact, to lose their charm. No mental effort is required to read 'The Weird Woman', no seeking for hidden meanings; there are no complexities of plot, no allegory on the state of the world. And so it should be. At what other point in literary history could a man, standing over the body of his fiancee, say such a line as this: 'Speak, hound! Or, by heaven, this night shall witness two murders instead of one!' Those were the days. (introduction to "The Weird Woman") ↗

— Hugh Lamb

#ghost-story #horror #victorian #victorian-age #victorian-era

There are very few moments in a man's existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress, or meets with so little charitable commiseration, as when he is in pursuit of his own hat. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#disease #victorian #experience

My great-grandfather was in the army in India, and we have photographs of my family there in full Victorian dress. They're incredibly romantic. ↗

— Georgina Chapman

#dress #family #full #great-grandfather #incredibly

Victorian architecture in the United States was copied straight from England. ↗

— Stephen Gardiner

#copied #england #states #straight #united

We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby. ↗

— W. Somerset Maugham

#asterisks #baby #certain #era #followed

The Victorian era is the sexiest age for me, but I also like a woman in a pair of jeans. ↗

— Dylan McDermott

#also #era #i #jeans #like

It is a sort of great Victorian truth that actually, trying to do the right thing is pretty good for you and pretty good for business as well, by and large. ↗

— Chris Patten

#business #do the right thing #good #great #large

Years ago I had a house in Sussex, it was like Arcadia, with an old Victorian bridge, a pond and the Downs. ↗

— Nicolas Roeg

#bridge #downs #had #house #i

The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#age #history #know #much #never