Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Victorian Britain
Evaluating and Interpreting Primary Documents
Chronology
Documents of Victorian Britain
Politics and Parliament
1. "We Demand Universal Suffrage": The National Petition (1839)
2. "Choose Your Motto: 'Advance' or 'Recede'": Prime Minister Robert Peel's Speech Supporting Repeal of the Corn Laws (1846)
3. "Every Man Shall…Be Entitled to Be Registered as a Voter": The Reform Act of 1867
4. "The Sympathy of the Colonies for the Mother Country": Benjamin Disraeli's "Crystal Palace Speech" (1872)
5. "No Great Day of Hope for Ireland": Prime Minister William Gladstone's House of Commons Speech Proposing Irish Home Rule (1886)
Society and Economy
6. "Children Having Begun to Work before They Are Nine": Second Report of the Children's Employment Commission (1843)
7. "It Is the Custom of 'Society' to Abuse Its Servants": Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861)
8. "Barely a Day's March Ahead of Actual Want": Samuel Smiles's Self-Help (1861)
9. "I Thought Such Young Men Could Not Manage the Bank": Walter Bagehot's Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (1873)
10. "Grey Tones Overcast the Mind": Charles Booth's Life and Labour of the People in London (1893)
Religion and Science
11. "The Truth of These Propositions Cannot…Be Disputed": Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859)
12. "Mr. Darwin's Daring Notion": Samuel Wilberforce's Review of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1860)
13. "Man Is…One with the Brutes": T. H. Huxley's Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863)
14. "My Own Soul Was My First Concern": Cardinal John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864)
15. "There Is an Athenian Love of Novelty Abroad": J. C. Ryle's Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots (1877)
Literature and Poetry
16. "What I Want Is Facts…Nothing But Facts": Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854)
17. "Into the Valley of Death": Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854)
18. "And You Wish to Serve the Queen?": Anthony Trollope's The Three Clerks (1858)
19. "Has He Got Any Heart?": George Eliot's Middlemarch (1874)
20. "The Captains and the Kings Depart": Rudyard Kipling's "Recessional" (1897)
Empire and War
21. "Murderous Volley of Grape and Canister": W. H. Russell's Eyewitness Account of the Charge of the Light Brigade (1854)
22. "We Were at a Loss What to Do": Edward Vibart's The Sepoy Mutiny, a Memoir of the Indian Rebellion (1857)
23. "No One Living Escaped": Frances Colenso's History of the Zulu War, an Account of the British Defeat at Isandlwana (1879)
24. "Dreadful News after Breakfast": Letters of the Queen and Prime Minister Gladstone Reacting to the Death of General Gordon (1885)
25. "Your Unauthorized and Most Improper Proceeding": Telegrams and Accounts Relating to the Jameson Raid (1895–1896)
Women and Family
26. "The Highest Tone of Moral Feeling": Sarah Stickney Ellis's The Women of England (1839)
27. "These Proceedings Would Cost You £1,000": Judge William Henry Maule Describes the Procedure for Dissolving an Early Victorian Marriage (1855)
28. "A Married Woman in England Has No Legal Existence": Caroline Norton's A Letter to the Queen (1855)
29. "The Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes": The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act (1857)
30. "The Gravest Interests of Women": Frances Power Cobbe's "Why Women Desire the Franchise" (1877)
The Queen and Her Family
31. "My Life As a Happy One Is Ended!": The Queen's Letters on Meeting, Losing, and Living without Prince Albert (1836, 1861, 1871)
32. "What I Suffered I Cannot Describe!": The Queen's Description of the "Bedchamber Crisis" (1839)
33. "We'll Send Him Home and Make Him Groan": Public Distrust of Prince Albert during the Crimean War (1854)
34. "Let Woman Be What God Intended": Letters of Queen Victoria on the Role of Women (1870)
35. "It Is a Terrible Humiliation": Letters Relating to the Prince of Wales's Involvement in the Tranby Croft and Lady Brooke Affairs (1890–1891)
Interesting Odds and Ends
36. "This Is Not the Republic I Came to See": Letter of Charles Dickens Recording His Impressions of the United States (1842)
37. "It Is a Wonderful Place": Comments by Charlotte Brontë, Charles Babbage, and "Mr. Punch" on the Crystal Palace and the Great Exposition (1851)
38. "One Who Was So Devoted": The Queen's Special Servants—John Brown and the Munshi (1870s–1901)
39. "My Knife's So Nice and Sharp": The Supposed Letters of Jack the Ripper (1888)
40. "Socialism, Communism, or Whatever One Chooses to Call It": Oscar Wilde's "The Soul of Man under Socialism" (1891)
Appendix 1: Biographical Sketches of Important Individuals Mentioned in Text
Appendix 2: Glossary of Terms Mentioned in Text
Appendix 3: Victorian Ministries, 1835–1902
Select Bibliography
Index

What can the people of the past tell us about their everyday lives? Historical documents teach us much about how individuals lived, whether they were raising a family or raising an army. The Voices of an Era series brings together primary sources from specific historical times to show how people worked, played, thought, worshipped, and much more.

· Each volume focuses on a specific historical era, offering a window into history through primary documents, from speeches to poems and interview transcripts

· Introductions and ‘Keep in Mind as you Read’ sections provide helpful context before introducing the source

· ‘Aftermath’ sections describe the effects and significance of the document or the events it influenced

· ‘Ask Yourself’ and ‘Topics to Consider’ sections provide ways for readers to further interrogate the text and undertake additional research to develop their understanding