The Victorian Era Study Four

In the Victorian Era, English family life increasingly became compartmentalized, the home a self-contained structure housing a nuclear family extended according to need and circumstance to include blood relations. The concept of "privacy" became a hallmark of the middle class life.

The Entertainment varied according to social class. Literature was as popular as ever, with the well-known authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and the Bronte Sisters.
Music was also very popular and even today, we can still enjoy the fourteen comic operas by Gilbert and Sullivan. Brass bands and "The Bandstand" became extremely popular at this time. It was common to hear the sound of a brass band whilst strolling through parklands. It was in this Era that the British Circus came into its own. An unusual form of 'Entertainment' involved "Spectacles" where paranormal events, such as mesmerism, mediumship, ghost conjuring and the like, were carried out to the delights of the crowds and participants.

Specialist hobbies, such as the study of birds, butterflies, seashells and wild flowers, became popular. Natural history was being looked into. Amateur collectors and natural history entrepreneurs played an important role in building the large collections of the 19th Century and early 20th Century.