Today I welcome Donna Fletcher Crow to my blog. She makes an interesting case for the Victorians, even though I'm a Tudor girl myself! Thanks for visiting, Donna!
Those Valiant Victorians
I love history. Especially English history. All periods of it. But I have always had a special fondness for the Victorians. It’s easy to look back on just about any period of history as being a simpler time in which to live than our own. (I do love my rose-colored glasses!) But it at least sometimes seems refreshing to think of dealing with different problems, if not necessarily simpler ones. (And, no, I don’t want to talk about the Black Death.)
In defense of my partiality, however, I’ll point out, along with the inestimable Wikipedia, that the Victorian Era comprised almost 64 years of “peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence.” The thing I find most endearing about the Victorians, however, was their energy and, in keeping with the aforementioned self-confidence, the belief that they could do anything and fix anything.
It wasn’t that their period was without problems. One need only point to urban poverty, child labour, conditions in mines, factories, prisons. . . Almost all a result of the practically overnight turn from being an agrarian culture to industrialization— certainly as major a turning point in human history, if not bigger, than our own technological revolution. Unprecedented economic and population growth, changes in farming, mining and manufacturing methods sent people flooding into the cities with all the accompanying social problems.
Problems for which many people blame the Victorians, but I rise to their defense and point out that, yes, these things did get out of hand, but as soon as the energetic, confident Victorians became aware of the problems, they set out to correct them, largely because they saw it as their Christian duty.
This is the world of my Lord Danvers Mysteries. As a mystery writer, I have a special interest in crimes of the period and so in each book in the series my amateur sleuths Charles, Lord Danvers, and the lovely Lady Antonia, find themselves embroiled in two mysteries, one a true crime as well as one of my own devising which I have wrapped around the historical facts.
In A Most Inconvenient Death, the first in the series, Charles, Charles Danvers, still in mourning for his lost love Charlotte, hopes to find escape from his ghosts at the country estate of his oldest friend Sir John Boileau. The events surrounding the coming of age of Sir John’s son and heir have much of Norfolk astir— until the peace of an autumn evening is shattered by a brutal murder.
The police are quick to point to a quarrelsome farmer but Lord Danvers has his doubts. As the local magistrate, Sir John has an interest in the investigation. But is the real connection much closer to home? And does Danvers owe the greater loyalty to an old friend or to the truth?
Then Danvers is even more unsettled by the entrance of the alluring Lady Antonia Hoover.
The Stanfield Hall Murders were the sensation they are portrayed to be, the elaborate coming of age celebrations and the ensuing dramatic trial are all recorded history. Lady Antonia, Lord Danvers, his irrepressible man Hardy and their pioneering aeronautical adventures are my contribution.
Donna Fletcher Crow is the author of 36 books, mostly novels dealing with British history.
The Lord Danvers Mysteries feature historical Victorian crimes within fictional stories. A MOST INCONVENIENT DEATH is set on a country estate in Norfolk, GRAVE MATTERS begins with the opening of the Crystal Palace in London before Charles and Antonia fly off to Scotland in his aerostat for their honeymoon. TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN finds the couple in Canterbury where Antonia has complications enough battling with the dark secret she has kept from her husband even before she becomes embroiled in a grisly murder.o see more about The Lord Danvers series and Donna’s other books as well as pictures from her garden and research trips go to: www.DonnaFletcherCrow.com.
Her blog is at: http://www.donnafletchercrow.com/articles.php
and you can follow her on Facebook at: http://ning.it/eLjgYp
Hi, Peg! Well, I'll readily admit to enjoying whatever period I'm working in, but still, there's that special corner of my heart the Victorians hold.
ReplyDeleteNow, I hope your readers will come on over to my blog and read your article about the Tudors.
http://www.donnafletchercrow.com/articles.php?id=92
Just thinking, Peg--there are a lot of similarities between the Elizabethans and Victorians. I know--your series isn't *quite* Elizabethan yet-- but both ruled by queens, both ages of great confidence (once the Armada was dealt with), both ages of exploration, invention, expansion. . .
ReplyDeleteFunny, I always think of the Victorians as noble sorts, who tried to abide by the golden rule. I didn't realize there was a darker perception, beyond, I suppose, the charge of prudishness. Very interesting piece, Donna.
ReplyDeleteI know lots of wrongs were done in the Victorian period, some of which you have alluded to, but the Victorian era still appeals to me, especially after my husband and I visited and hiked in England several times. The idea of order, civility, and witty understatement can be appealing in age which often lacks them.
ReplyDeleteI love the Victorian era too, but I write from the perspective of the American West. Strange how Victorian morals and customs moved around the world!
ReplyDeleteEmpire is admittedly a mixed bag, but I love the international travel of this era--missionaries risking all to take the gospel to India, Africa, SE Asia. And since they took months to get there, they didn't have to deal with jet lag. Of course, they did often pack in coffins to facilitate the return trip.
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