Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum

Hughes (life writing, Univ. of East Anglia; George Eliot: The Last Victorian) uses notorious body parts of prominent Victorians to unveil a variety of anatomical realities that contemporary authors usually omitted—usually through unspoken cultural agreement, but not infrequently with obfuscating intent or in accordance with editorial or familial demand. The entry on George Eliot's hand provides perhaps the most detailed look at the process by which some fact about a person's body finds its way both into and out of a biography. While this and similar stories are rich with anecdote and fit together into a fascinating journey through a much richer landscape than previously encountered in studies of the period, four out of the five essays also offer glimpses into the realities of women's lives. The section in which Hughes imagines how the Fanny Adams murder trial would have been different if the child had lived—and the trial had been for her rape, instead—was particularly striking when viewed in light of our own culture's reactions to #metoo accusers.