Palaces of Pleasure, Lee Jackson
Palaces of Pleasure, Lee Jackson
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Palaces of Pleasure
From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football, How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment

Author: Lee Jackson

Narrator: Liam Gerrard

Unabridged: 12 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/25/2019


Synopsis

The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the nineteenth century's growing industrialized class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their every whim was satisfied by entrepreneurs building new venues for popular amusement. Contrary to their reputation as dour, buttoned-up prudes, the Victorians reveled in these newly created "palaces of pleasure".

In this vivid, captivating book, Lee Jackson charts the rise of well–known institutions such as gin palaces, music halls, seaside resorts, and football clubs, as well as the more peculiar attractions of the pleasure garden and international exposition, ranging from parachuting monkeys and human zoos to theme park thrill rides. He explores how vibrant mass entertainment came to dominate leisure time and how the attempts of religious groups and secular improvers to curb "immorality" in the pub, variety theater, and dance hall faltered in the face of commercial success.

The Victorians' unbounded love of leisure created a nationally significant and influential economic force: the modern entertainment industry.

About Lee Jackson

Lee Jackson is a well-known Victorianist and creator of the preeminent website on Victorian London (victorianlondon.org). He is the author of Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth and Walking Dickens' London. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Marguerite on January 09, 2021

This was an entertaining and informative read, looking at the development of popular culture in the (long) Victorian era. I was particularly interested in the earlier chapters on gin palaces and music halls. Gin palaces, I learned, had their roots in the Georgian era, and the author maps their devel......more

Goodreads review by Shrike58 on January 19, 2022

On the whole, I was both entertained and informed with this book, as the author walks you through the rise of commercial entertainment in Victorian England; much of this being wrapped up with examining the varying degrees of handwringing over how much independent space adult women were to be granted......more