Stephen Fry's Victorian Secrets

If you know anything about Stephen Fry, you know what to expect when listening to Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets. It is a very clever and entertaining look at many of the myths regarding Victorian society. With his droll British humor, Mr. Fry covers everything from sex and pornography to murder and the adoption of modern detective skills. He manages to educate while making fun of modern-day assumptions regarding this historical period. Never lewd, lascivious, or graphic, he presents each topic with discretion and grace and with tongue firmly in cheek. If only all history could be so enjoyable.

20% of why I bought this was a mild interest in 'Victorian Secrets', but 80% was because Stephen Fry was narrating it.

Neither disappointed. If you don't like Stephen Fry - and I don't know how that would be possible - you won't like this audiobook. If you do, you'll probably enjoy it even if some of the stuff he discusses is old hat.

The recording is broken up into 12 episodes that each cover a different facet of Victorian culture. It's debatable whether or not a lot of these are "secrets" in the strictest sense of the word; more that some of these are things the average modern day person might not have known about the era, or had ever given any thought to (sewer pirates anyone?). It seems this was created specifically for Audible by show more Audible, but it sounds much like the BBC Radio Shows in format - each episode in introduced, and there are excepts read by other authors/scholars about their work as it pertains to the episode's subject. I was chuffed to not only recognise some of them, but to have already read their work.

My personal prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box (or my Kinder surprise for the younger demographic) was the last episode: it was about Sherlock Holmes - squeeee! He talks about the mystery surrounding aspects of Holmes' life, but even better, the episode includes a recording of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself discussing Sherlock's creation. Bliss, with a hint of Scottish burr. show less

Summary: The Victorian Era has a reputation for dullness and conformity among the people, both rich and poor. This book tries to demonstrate that the time was wild and the people were anything but stereotypical.

Pros: The book is humorous and irreverent. It certainly focuses on some of the more unknown aspects of this chapter in English history.

Cons: This book is primarily a chance to explore the perverse. Historically, it is bad form to take rare, isolated examples and extrapolate too greatly which this book does frequently. It is pretty obvious that the author started with a point and then cherry picked evidence to support it.

Evaluation: The best thing that can be said is that this book proves that the people of the Victorian Era were show more truly human. They were voyeurs, perverts, cruel, and easily amused. They were like us. One of the best ways to understand the people of any time is to observe people of every time, including our own. Human nature doesn't change. The irreverent perspective is entertaining, and the book works better as humor than as a serious investigation. show less

I enjoyed this fun historical romp through the Victorian underbelly. This Audible freebie is not an audiobook; rather a 12-episode radio series that examines a different topic each. We get insight into Victorian family secrets, murders and murderesses, sex and pornography, mental illnesses, gay and lesbian love affairs, and in one memorable episode, the origins of the water closet, toilet paper and the word “crapper” (it is a name!). Stephen Fry narrates and interviews expert historians - sound effects, piano music and re-enactments complete the atmosphere. Real fun listen to get through that Christmas gift wrapping project.

Episodes:
1. Family Secrets
2. The Buckingham Palace Freak Show (freak shows)
3. Pornography, Pleasure, and the show more Press
4. Fourty Elephants and Other Dangerous Women (women criminals)
5. Afro-Victorians
6. Victorians Underground (water closets and sewage system)
7. Beauty and the Beards (image consciousness, barbers and beauty salons)
8. On the Wild Side (gay love in the Victorian era)
9. In and out of the Asylum (mental illness and asylums)
10. Woman to Woman (lesbian love and diaries)
11. Seance, Science and Messiahs (spirituality, mediums, hypnotism)
12. Secret Sherlock (drugs and Sherlock Holmes) show less

Audible did us readers a favor by packing together a dozen or so podcast episodes delightfully narrated by Stephen Fry. (Material put together by authors John Woolf and Nick Baker.) The guide to the hidden closets of Victorian society cover boot-kissing sadism, sex, madness (mad houses), malice, murder, toilets, homesexuality and even widespread morphine use.

Entertaining and informative set of 'essays' about various aspects of Victorian life that the Victorians tended to keep secret - sex (both hetero- and homosexual), drugs, madness, murder to name a few topics. The authors draw extensively on diaries and other contemporary sources.

Entertaining and informative set of 'essays' about various aspects of Victorian life that the Victorians tended to keep secret - sex (both hetero- and homosexual), drugs, madness, murder to name a few topics. The authors draw extensively on diaries and other contemporary sources.