Victorian Mentality

Posted by R. Berg on September 09, 2001

In Reply to: Victorian Mentality posted by Q on September 09, 2001

: What is meant by the "Victorian Mentality". Was she a bad queen? Or does this refer to the culture that followed her. (Here in American, there are home styles called "Victorians" . They are -for the most part- colonials with front porches) -Did she invent this stlye?

From the American Heritage Dict..:
Victorian, adj. 1. Pertaining or belonging to the period of Queen Victoria's reign: "a Victorian novel." 2. Exhibiting qualities usually associated with the time of Queen Victoria, as moral severity or hypocrisy, middle-class stuffiness, and pompous conservatism. 3. Being in the highly ornamented, massive style of architecture, decor, and furnishings popular in 19th-century England.

Victorian houses have abundant decoration, high ceilings, and small rooms. If they're furnished in the Victorian style, they're full of fragile objects that are easily knocked over, so that you must walk carefully, elbows pressed to sides. (For a good read, and a relevant one, see Connie Willis's novel "To Say Nothing of the Dog.") Victorian houses, like Victorian ethics, have their beautiful and lofty aspect but make for difficult living.

• The Queen ESC 09/09/01