This enthralling book explores the experience of dying, death, grieving, and mourning in the years between 1830-1920. Victorian letters and diaries reveal a deep preoccupation with death because of a shorter life expectancy, a high death rate for infants and children, and a dominant Christian culture. Drawing upon the private correspondence, diaries and death memorial of fifty-five middle and upper class families, Pat Jalland shows us how dying, death and grieving were experience by Victorian families, and how the manner and rituals of death and mourning varied with age, gender, disease, religious belief, family size and class. She examines deathbed scenes, good and bad deaths, funerals and cremations, mourning rituals, widowhood, and the roles of religion and medicine.

Winner of 1997 New South Wales Premier's History Award
Reviews
This is a fascinating book, considering a very interesting topic at what ... is the period of our history which it finds its most enlightening form. Its strength lies in its detail and the picture of individual lives that it creates. This is a welcome addition to the history of the period. * PW. *
Pat Jalland's research is impressive, drawing on a vast range of resources taken from the archives of 55 Victorian and Edwardian families. * PW. *


Awards
Winner of Winner of 1997 New South Wales Premier's History Award.



Book Information
ISBN 9780198208327
Author Pat Jalland
Format Paperback
Page Count 476
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 27mm