Keeping up appearances: were the Victorians really so civilised?
The notion of the Victorian era has historically been one of a formal, well-mannered, civilised and seemingly repressed society. Andersson’s research in the Journal of Victorian Culture challenges this neatly preserved image of Victorianism and reveals aspects of society and Victorian expression which lay beneath the façade. It was once believed that Victorians were so embarrassed by naked table legs, that they dressed them in skirts. Since disproved, Andersson looks beyond the traditional vision of what it was to be Victorian, largely