I really enjoyed this book and learning about all the ways the victorians viewed and subsequently changed our views about death. This was so well written and wasn't dry like some non fiction can be.

Death and the Victorians is an entertaining and interesting read. It covers a wide range of topics including cemeteries, the occult and spiritualism, photography(eg. posing the dead in photos), ghost stories, the rise of sensationalist newspapers and penny dreadfuls, and of course Jack the Ripper. Many literary references.

I've been intrigued by death customs for years and this book touched on several of my favorite topics. There were mentions of details and topics which I found myself wanting to explore further. Especially interesting was the chapter on Victorian ghost stories. I found several suggestions for future readings to enjoy!
Overall I would have just liked it to be longer, it's a great subject to write on.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A macabre and engrossing read. Full of detail with plenty of intersections between Victorian culture and death.
The book is written in conversational style, which I am not much used to so it did feel like it was veering towards too casual in some places. It does also cover beyond the UK, expanding so far to discuss the Catacombs of Paris and some material on the USA.
The parts about how the Parisians who thought a trip to the Paris Morgue was a enjoyable day out or portraits taken with the deceased I think I will remember for quite some time!

If you have an affinity for social history, mortuary rituals, and the interplay of religion and society, “Death and the Victorians” is a must-read. While it may be a tad academic at times, its thorough research and engaging storytelling make it an entertaining and informative read.
It's the perfect book if you love social history, if you are into goth culture o want to know more about how this time changed the way of life.
I found fascinating the part about the photo with the dead.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really enjoyed this book but have the mark in down due to the tangents the author goes on. There are part of the book that are connected to death and the victorians but pages where dedicated to but other parts that where summed up in a paragraph or two but should have been more explored. Regardless i enjoyed the book and was very happy to have read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Published for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Are you the kind of person that finds the Victorian obsession with death fascinating? Do you harbour a longing to take a stroll around Highgate Cemetery, London before you shuffle off this mortal coil? Then this is the book for you. Looking at the period of history from just before Queen Victoria took the throne to the outbreak of the First World War, the author examines the Victorian attitude towards death including the designing & building of huge cemeteries to replace the crumbling old churchyards, the practice of taking photographs of the recently deceased, the rise of spiritualism, & the growing popularity of the ghost story & 'Penny Dreadfuls'. It's mainly UK-centric although there is quite a bit about the Paris Morgue & the underground catacombs, plus the Hyde sisters in the US.

It seems weird to type this, given the subject matter, but this book made me LOL several times. It's quite humorous at times in tone but there's lots of intriguing information including the fact that the Victorians could be rather creepily morbid at times. One example is that of a building over an old crypt, where up to 20,000 people had been interred, being turned into a dance hall & dances were held titled 'Dancing on the Dead'! Makes the TV show Dancing on Ice sound positively prosaic. Or how about the Parisians who thought a trip to the Paris Morgue was a fun day out! Out of all the chapters, I thought that the last one on Jack the Ripper & the epilogue worked the least - they seemed a little rushed compared to the others. Overall though, it was a really interesting read & I would recommend it to anyone interested in Victorian history.

My thanks to NetGalley & publisher, Pen & Sword History, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

If you've studied the Victorians at all, you will probably know a lot of these stories. It is, not surprisingly, very Euro-centric. Very focused on England with all of the, what we would call nowadays, weirdness: seances, memento moris, and the scare of Jack the Ripper.
I was disappointed that there were topics that weren't more deeply delved into (not Jack the Ripper, as Mackinder says, that has been well-covered.) This book is shorter than many nonfiction books and could have stood with more pages. I did appreciate that one chapter was mainly dedicated to books of the time that focused on death.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out January 30, 2024
ARC kindly provided b Pen & Sword and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Such a fantastic book! This gem is a thoroughly enjoyable read. The obsession the Victorians had with death is well known and so compelling. This book is a perfectly documented account of that. From the use of memento mori to postmortem photography, from the attraction for public executions to the furor of the Penny dreadfuls everything is presented in this book in a beautiful and accessible prose that will make you want to keep reading, nonstop.
Fantastic book. I highly recommend it!

This engrossing and informative book explores the Victorian fascination with death, from ghost stories to early murder obsessions, that still captivate us today. It delves into the era’s blend of Gothic imagination and invention as people pursued the spectral. It’s a spooky, fun, and easy read.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Such a great read! I’ve always been fascinated by the Victorian Era and their relationship with death, and that is exactly what this book explores. It is very well written, captivating, and it feels like the author has really done his research.

This is a very informative book giving us a glimpse into how death was seen by, and changed during, the Victorian times. This short book was very well written with a lot of information, without sounding too “boring” or unoriginal to read. Despite being fairly short, this book covers a wide array of topics, and provides especially a good introduction to readers who may be unfamiliar with the information.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and Pen & Sword for providing me with this ARC.

Death and the Victorians covers a lot of ground in an easily digestible and entertaining way. It covers a range of topics that ultimately gives the reader a good sense and overview of Victorian attitudes and beliefs about death and the afterlife. I felt like each topic covered could easily be covered in a book of its own because there was so much covered, but the author gives plenty of recommendations for further reading beyond his analysis. This book could act as a great introduction to anyone new to the Victorian era or their specific attitudes and beliefs.

My only nitpicky issue is that I am not a huge fan of overly conversational tones in books about historical topics. That’s a personal preference - I could see some readers enjoying it. But this one veered a little too much in that direction, even including information about how Halloween was/wasn’t celebrated in his town during his childhood and his love for it now. But, even still, that didn’t detract from the fun of the book, and I still found it both engaging and informative.

*I received a free eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Pen & Sword History, and Adrian Mackinder for the opportunity to review this title!*

Death and the Victorians is a well written exploration of death and the fascination with it that began to be prominent in the Victorian Era. Adrian Mackinder is a good writer but I have read many of these ideas and stories before in other history books or even true crime.

This was a wonderful overview of the many aspects of death and the Victorian era. In the book, the author discusses the perception of death in the 18th century and how it evolved into one where people cared about the dying and dead. The book covers topics such as ghosts, ouija boards, spiritualists, and mourning culture. In addition, there is a section on post mortem photography, which I think the author did a wonderful job on. There is a lot of misleading information on the internet and they address that issue.

Anyone curious about this topic should pick up this book.

So, I'm a huge fan of nonfiction books about death, dying, mourning, etc. I'm also a huge fan of Victorian culture and history. Death and the Victorians provides an excellent introduction to the intersection of these topics in a very readable form. Many books about death infantilize the reader or are written for a scholarly audience-- Death and the Victorians never takes either tone, instead it chooses to present its information in an enticing narrative that is easy to follow but provides plenty of opportunity to stop and make notes or digest what you just read.

Adrian Mackinder very clearly knows their material, and I'm thrilled to have had the chance to read this book. Even though I spend a lot of time reading books about both topics, I still learned new information here. The sections on private funerals and death photography were incredibly interesting. Totally worth the read for experienced enjoyers of, as well as beginners to, morbid nonfiction.

Thank you to Pen and Sword History as well as the author for providing me with a digital arc for this review. I'll look forward to buying a physical copy for my collection.

Death and the Victorians by Adrian Mackinder is an engrossing book about how death was viewed and dealt with during a particularly macabre awakening in the era. But we, too, are fascinated by the process of death.

This was the Golden Age of ghosts, communicating with the dead, sensationalism and death depicted in literature, theatre and art. Faith and spiritualism were at the forefront. Unprecedented numbers of bodies from wars, plagues, crimes and industrial accidents necessitated better and more sanitary burial standards. Law changes prompted lucrative body snatching and murder just to earn money from medical men.

Private garden cemeteries and morgues became important and some are open to wandering to this day. I've visited many old catacombs, cemeteries and ossuaries and wonder what the people were like and how they lived.

Macabre photographs really personalize the grief and suffering Victorian families endured and the lengths they went to to keep their loved ones close. Bodies of the deceased were propped up and the pallor of those living were made to fade into the background. Photographs were often the best (or worst) way to preserve memories.

The press played a pivotal role in sensationalism and news, including Jack the Ripper. Occult societies sprang up.

If this topic intrugues you, don't allow this book to slip through your fingers.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this smashing book.

This fascinating book covers the physical aspects of death as well as the mystical. It’s a great combination of facts about the practicalities of disposing of bodies through to the spiritualist movement and how “those left behind” come to terms with loss. I loved the information on the Paris Catacombs and the ways in which burials were managed in overcrowded London graveyards, as well as the details of Resurrection Men and what their practices meant for the legal framework. It’s well researched and there is a tone of humour in the writing style which actually works really well for such a dark topic. A great read!

Death And The Victorians by Adrian Mackinder is a well written book on the practices of burying their dead during the Victorian age. This book is so good from how they started cremating their dead to having better burying practices from what they did with their deceased battle victims to strange displays of dead bodies to the incredulous thing some did with others dead loved ones. She even talks about the building of popular cemeteries. This is a great book and one I found very interesting and highly entertaining there’s way too much stuff in this book for me to put in my review but I do want to say before ending this review that I love the way this author writes you can tell she loves the subject she is riding a bow but does not give weight to big emotions and or generalizations but writes the information that’s factual as she gets it she also states in the book that she wrote this during a busy life with two children and a full-time job and if this is what she writes when her tank is running solo I cannot wait to see what she writes in the future. Her first book was about Stanley from marble which I am definitely going to read I do believe this is my year for great authors because I have found a few where are usually at this time only one or two would be notable I now have a list of nine authors that I follow and would buy anything they write and this author Adrian Mackinder is now one of them needless to say this is the book I highly recommend I want to thank pin and sword history and net galley for my free Ark copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley.

Death and the Victorians by Adrian Mackinder is a nonfiction book around Victorian attitudes around death and connecting the threads to previous beliefs and modern practices. The cremation aspect was quite interesting and I am now interested in doing my own research into the topic.

The necropolises of Great Britain were new information for me as was when reincarnation was introduced to England and by who and I enjoyed the connections made between ectoplasm in Ghostbusters and Victorian spirituality.

I was originally concerned that the book would dismiss the victims of Jack the Ripper due to the wording of the summary, but Mackinder names all five of the Canonical Five, explicitly states that they deserve more attention, and directs readers who want to give the spotlight to those women to read The Five by Hallie Rubenhold.

I would recommend this to those doing research on the Victorian era, spirituality in England, and the White Chapel murders. I would not recommend this to those who have little interest in nonfiction or want nonfiction presented without author asides.