The Victorians (Rees-Mogg book)

The Victorians: Twelve Titans who Forged Britain is a 2019 biographical work by the Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, a backbencher at the time, in which he discusses twelve influential British figures of the Victorian period.

The Victorians
AuthorJacob Rees-Mogg
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectVictorian era
GenreBiography
PublisherPenguin Books
Publication date
23 May 2019
Pages464
ISBN978-0753548523
941.081

The book covers eleven men—Prince Albert, Disraeli, Palmerston, Robert Peel, William Gladstone, Robert Napier, General Gordon, W. G. Grace, William Sleeman, Albert Dicey, and Augustus Pugin—and one woman, Queen Victoria.

Reception

The book was subject to a largely negative critical reception.[1][2] Columnist A. N. Wilson called it "staggeringly silly" and "morally repellent",[3] while historian Richard J. Evans described it as "plodding, laborious, humourless and barely readable."[4]

It has been criticised for including only one woman, for failure to use primary sources, and on literary grounds. In her review, scholar of the Victorian period Kathryn Hughes wrote, "At least we know The Victorians isn't ghost written, since no self-respecting freelancer would dare ask for payment for such rotten prose".[2]

Dominic Sandbrook, reviewing the book for The Sunday Times, described it as "bad, boring and mind‑bogglingly banal".[5][6]

However, the historian Andrew Roberts described the book as "a full-throated, clear-sighted, well-researched and extremely well-written exposition of the Victorians and their values".[7]

References
  1. Forrest, Adam (19 May 2019). "Jacob Rees-Mogg's new book on the Victorians universally panned by critics". The Independent. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  2. Hughes, Kathryn (15 May 2019). "The Victorians by Jacob Rees-Mogg review – history as manifesto". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  3. Wilson, A.N. (15 May 2019). "The Victorians by Jacob Rees-Mogg review — 'a staggeringly silly piece of history'". The Times. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  4. Evans, Richard J. (22 May 2019). "Jacob Rees-Mogg's horrible history". New Statesman. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  5. Times, Review by Dominic Sandbrook | The Sunday (18 May 2019). "The Victorians by Jacob Rees-Mogg review — bad, boring and mind‑bogglingly banal". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  6. "Jacob Rees-Mogg's history book is getting roasted – these are the most savage reviews". indy100. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  7. Perraudin, Frances (19 May 2019). "'Staggeringly silly': critics tear apart Jacob Rees-Mogg's new book". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 September 2019.


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