Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain

by Judith Flanders

A delightful and fascinating social history of Victorians at leisure, told through the letters, diaries, journals and novels of 19th-century men and women from the author of the bestselling 'The Victorian House'.Imagine a world where only one in five people owns a book, where just one in ten has a knife or a fork - a world where five people out of every six do not own a cup to hold a hot drink. That was what England was like in the early eighteenth century. Yet by the close of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution had brought with it not just factories, railways, mines and machines but also brought fashion, travel, leisure and pleasure.Leisure became an industry, a cornucopia of excitement for the masses. And it was spread by newspapers, by advertising, by promotions and publicity - all eighteenth, not twentieth century creations. It was Josiah Wedgwood and his colleagues who invented money-back guarantees, free delivery, and celebrity endorsements. New technology such as the railways brought audiences to ever-more-elaborate extravaganzas, whether it was theatrical spectaculars with breathtaking pyrotechnics and hundreds of extras, 'hippodramas' recreating the battle of Waterloo, or the Great Exhibition itself, proudly displaying 'the products of all quarters of the globe' under twenty-two acres of a sparkling 'Crystal Palace'.In 'Consuming Passions', the bestselling author of 'The Victorian House' explores this dramatic revolution in science, technology and industry - and how a world of thrilling sensation, lavish spectacle and unimaginable theatricality was born.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Victorian, 19th Century, Research, Historical, British Literature

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Judith Flanders was born in London, England, in 1959. She moved to Montreal, Canada, when she was two, and spent her childhood there, apart from a year in Israel in 1972, where she signally failed to master Hebrew.

After university, Judith returned to London and began working as an editor for various publishing houses. After this 17-year misstep, she began to write and in 2001 her first book, A Circle of Sisters, the biography of four Victorian sisters, was published to great acclaim, and nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. In 2003, The Victorian House (2004 in the USA, as Inside the Victorian Home) received widespread praise, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards History Book of the Year. In 2006 Consuming Passions, was published. Her most recent book, The Invention of Murder, was published in 2011.

Judith also contributes articles, features and reviews for a number of newspapers and magazines.

Reviews

[Karen· · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something of an over-stuffed cushion, this is at once meticulously researched and weirdly engaging. It is packed, stuffed, teeming with facts. That amount of information is tough to manage, but this is well ordered and narrated with a nicely wry tone. However, its pulling power will be in direct proportion to the reader's interest in the subject at hand. Personally, I found the sections on shopping, reading (books and newspapers), holidays and tourism, sport, and Christmas utterly bewitching, but the parts on the art and music markets less so. That might say a lot about my particular interests. Flanders' overarching theme is the commodification of leisure and pleasure - well, for some reason I can get very excited about the pricing of books and the sociology of the reading public, but the publishing of sheet music and the funding of concert halls or the availability of engravings and prints is less alluring. Each to their own. And then there is the question of access: the conflict between the elite and the masses, and the valiant, but ultimately doomed attempts of the privileged to keep the unwashed out.

It should be added that, although this is called 'Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain' it actually goes well back into the 18th century to illustrate the development and change that took place in Victoria's time. Rich and rewarding.

[Emma Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

How riveting. This is a dense book and it took me a while to finish it but I'm so happy I did, for it provides some really wonderfully detailed chapters on things I had read very little about up till now - hobbies in Victorian England. There's no book that has more than this one on the topic, and I've read a lot of books on the era by now. I wouldn't recommend it as a first book on the period, it's too restrictive for that and the writing doesn't flow easily, but if you just haven't had enough and are craving something Victorian, pick this up. My favourite chapter was, unsurprisingly, about book selling. What a wonderful find and something I'll reread in the future for sure.

[Brenda Clough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of meat in this egg. People passionate about the period will love it, but if you're a more casual reader her VICTORIAN HOME is better.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title of this is a little bit misleading, because it covers more than just the Victorian era, and less than the whole of Britain. There is very little information here about Scotland and almost nothing on Wales, and it covers the whole of the 18th century and up to the beginning of the 20th, which is obviously a much longer spread than simply the Victorian era.

The book is broken down into chapters, each covering a difference aspect of leisure pursuits - sport, art, shopping, literature, theatre, exhibitions, tourism. It's incredibly comprehensive, perhaps almost a little too comprehensive. I was flagging by the end of the book; my brain was overloaded with all the facts and figures, and it was a bit of a slog to get to the end.

But it's an enjoyable read, and a very recognisable one. It really brings to light just how much of our consumer society today began in the 18th century, and how little things have changed. What we buy, and where, and how may have changed - but the notion of conspicuous consumption is as alive today as it ever was.

[Tig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know, I ought to have loved this. I've adored her other two social history books, I'm an enthusiastic consumer and a lover of all detials about Victorian social history, but I found bits of it just a little too detailed to be really engaging. We were treated to many stats of how many people went to the races at Doncaster in March or what proportion of shops made their own shirts or which countries Wedgwood sold to. It just didnt quite grab me. I did learn some lovely small details though: the Sherlock Holmes meerschaum was introduced by the first person to act it because the dropped stem meant it did not obscure his face; and the phrase 'cut the cackle and come to the 'orses' was coined by a promoter of the hippodrama (who knew THAT existed?) suggesting to be successful one should not bother too much with dialogue but simply get the horses on stage. Victorian theatre sounds wonderful (earthquakes, fires, floods, battles, ghosts): why can't we get special effects like that nowadays?

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mi dispiace moltissimo perché della stessa autrice avevo molto apprezzato The Victorian House però questa lettura mi ha sfinito. In fin dei conti avevo già capito leggendo l'introduzione che l'approccio dell'autrice era molto diverso da quello che mi aspettavo:

In Consuming Passions I have chosen to look not at the contents of the world of leisure, but at the containers: not at the literary merits (or otherwise) of books, newspapers and magazines, but at the availability of reading material; not at the subject matter of plays, but at staging and the technological development of theatrical presentation-at lighting, special effects and spectacle; at football and racing not as sporting competitions, but as paying spectators events.

Purtroppo questo approccio per me si è rivelato prevalentemente noioso. In generale credo che l'autrice abbia un po' esagerato con i suoi infiniti elenchi, però vedo che la maggior parte dei lettori ha apprezzato, quindi immagino si sia trattato proprio delle mie aspettative, che erano sbagliate.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Flander's Inside the Victorian Home and was delighted when I saw this at the bookstore! I have been fascinated by nineteenth century consumer society since my first encounter with Ulysses' "Nausicaa" and have done quite a bit of reading on the subject, but I think Flanders' is the most comprehensive, interesting (love those footnotes!), and exhaustively researched study I have come across. Flanders, arguing that the consumer revolution was driven not by "things" but by choice, does an incredible job of detailing the myriad choices of leisure and pleasure (from theater, pleasure gardens, books, and newspapers to spectator sports, tourism, shopping, and seaside outings) dangled in front of the Victorian masses.

[Velvetink · Rating 1 out of 5]

The focus in Consuming Passions is on the growth of consumerism, with the author, Judith Flanders, often delving into the eighteenth-century background to demonstrate her thesis — the democratisation of the marketplace, not just for goods, but for all sorts of leisure pursuits.

Tons of interesting facts & well researched, and I normally love this kind of thing but I think the writer should have been an accountant. It was incredibly boring and badly written for the most part.

[Daný · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book to prepare for the 2016 'Consuming (the) Victorians' conference but didn't get round to reading it until almost a year after the conference. Flanders offers a readable and interesting account of various kinds of consumption in the Victorian age. I liked the way she linked different kinds of consumption and how she looked to earlier periods for the beginnings of certain kinds of consumption and movements. The only thing I missed was more of a conclusion. The book ends with an appendix about Christmas and seasonal consumption but there's no real overview. In general, though, I really liked this book and am happy I finally got round to reading it after all.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judith Flanders’ “Consuming Passions” is a thoroughly detailed, elegantly researched, and fascinating look at how England turned leisure into an industry. Along the way, Flanders shows how many other events such as the move towards an urban society was initiated, how the railroad played a primary role in the evolution of both leisure and commercialism, and how, over time, the over-commercialized world we live in today was born. Fascinating reading.

The book has an impressive bibliography, is supported with many illustrations and is written in a tone that engages the reader. My only wish is that the book was more lavishly illustrated.

[Jeanette Fast Redmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, as I have enjoyed Flanders’ other social histories about (variously) London, Victorian homes, and Christmas. But unusually for her, this book puts numbers ahead of narrative. Rather than delve into the delights of Bath, for example, we’re treated to numbers of visitors and residents. She charmingly discusses the growth of the theater in the Victorian era, but it’s all buried beneath box office figures and the minutiae of legitimate vs. illegitimate theaters. Frankly, this book is a slog, and the tiny print doesn’t help. Even so, I look forward to her next.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favourite book by this author. What I love about Judith Flanders is the facts she gives you that really give you an insight into a period. Like the fact you could hire a hot bath in Victorian England which would be delivered by men wearing slippers so as not to disturb the invalid. This book has some of that especially towards the end. But it is more a treatise on how things changed over the period with numbers of shops in different periods and facts like that. A few times I was confused by the book and there didn’t seem to be any connection between paragraphs. A four as it was still very interesting overall.

[Anja · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars
It was interesting, but also a bit much to take in. Lots of numbers and statistics and sometimes unnecessary background information.
Also, there was a lot about the 18th century in there, so it's definitely not just about the Victorian era.
But still, enjoyable - and considering the amount of information quite easy to read.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

a fun and fascinating look at the details of victorian social passtimes.

[Jean Marriott · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough academic read on leisure in the Victorian era. I'd recommend it mostly for academics who need in-depth information on this subject.

[Maria Ioannou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there is anything you ever wanted to know about how the Victorians spent their free time, and the origin of it - this is the book to read it in. It is a quite magnificent (and impressive) collection of facts presented by the author in 12 differently themed chapters (or I should say 11, since there is actually two chapters on shopping, but that's the only case) and in each chapter the subjects are dealt with in a very associative manner - a chapter on (mostly news)papers deals with Victorian news papers (of course) but also what news papers there were before this, how printing was done, how the paper was done, who could read, taxes on them, how they were circulated, etc etc etc. If you want to use this as a source book if you, for example, are writing a book set in Victorian times, you don't have to read it from beginning to end though - if that feels too daunting (which it really isn't) - the index is quite good and will send you to all the right pages you could be interested in.

So, I am deeply impressed by the knowledge gathered and possessed by Flanders - and I really like how she presents it. It's a mass of information, but it also means you will get a lot of information you didn't even know you wanted to have (like how the football club Aston Villa got its name, or why there for a long time were so few visitors to the British Museum, or why turkeys were so expensive). And I really love her sense of humour, making this anything but dry to read!

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book about various different types of leisure activities that were popular in the Victorian era and how they from the 18th century to the late Victorian period. I found the chapter about shopping particularly interesting, and the chapters on reading, on travel and holidays, on shows and spectacles etc, are also fascinating. The book is crammed with interesting information. The only thing I found slightly disappointing is that no mention is made of one very popular activity of the late Victorian era - boating on the Thames, the subject of one of my most beloved books, Three Men In A Boat. Apart from that minor disappointment though, I found this book highly enjoyable.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really opened my eyes to the complexities and realities of so much of Victorian Britain.It all seems so familiar from the novels of Dickens,Collins,and Eliot,and the paintings of Frith and the prints of Dore, that it comes as a shock to realise that so many aspects of modern life, as we know it, began in Victorian England; professional sport,mass-market magazines & newspapers, foreign travel,trade catalogues & class-consciousness...
A very well-researched one-volume survey-in-depth of the beginnings of Modern Britain ,and warrants any general reader's attentions as a antidote to too much Dickens!

[Peter]

Hmm. Abandoned it really. Very useful if I were researching Victorian leisure. Much, much less readable than her wonderful book on the Victorian House - lacked that's overarching organisation, and also suffered from the thesis that Victorian leisure culture started in the Eighteenth Century (I am sure true) - so that its material ranged 1700-1900. May return to it: jammed full of material, but too jammed.

[Rebecca Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Judith Flanders books are always entertaining and informative - and substantial. I don't know how she manages to cover so much ground with such a breadth of sources. In this chunky book she takes the reader through shopping, music, theatre, publishing and so much more across the 19th century. I love the vivid little insights that bring nose to nose with the past. For me it is a slow read, because I find so much in it, but you can also dip in and out with equal pleasure.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed with fascinating information about the rise and development in consumerism in Britain. Though the cover specifies the Victorian age as the focus, Judith Flanders goes back to the eighteenth century and beyond to give background and prove that many supposed Victorian innovations were in fact there all the time. Excellent, eclectic read.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great.More informative about the time period than the subject would suggest. The chapters are devoted to The Great Exhibition, the 18th-century shop, the 19th-century shop, news/magazines, book publishing, travel and tourism, "shows" (panoramas, etc.), theater, music, sports and Christmas (its development as an important, and "spending" holiday).

[Fishsanwitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

stamped

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful, and charming, but a bit long. I recommend this book to those obsessed with Victoriana, which more people should be.

[Marta Palomares · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely well documented book, with interesting material and bits and pieces which are not easily found in other books.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Altogether too dense, too much information

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting if a little repetitive.