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Article: The greatest age of all; They virtually invented the modern world ... from the lawnmower to aspirin and from nuts and bolts to nationwide weather forecasts. So why has the so-called liberal elite spent years sneering at the amazing achievements of the Victorians?
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- August 25, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: JOHN CASEY
ONE of the silliest things in our recent history was the use of 'Victorian' as a term of contempt or abuse. It had been made fashionable by Lytton Strachey with his clever, superficial and ultimately empty book Eminent Victorians, in which he either lampooned or damned with faint praise such Victorian heroes as General Gordon, Cardinal Manning, Thomas Arnold and Florence Nightingale.
Strachey's demolition job was clever because it ridiculed the Victorians for exactly those qualities on which they prided themselves - their high-mindedness, their marked moral intensity, their desire to improve the human condition and their confidence ...