The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830-1870

If you are interested in the Victorian era, this is a thorough and comprehensive study of the period. A classic!

This book could just as well be called The Modern Frame of Mind or more generally The Western Frame of Mind for the issues that perplexed and divided the Victorians have always perplexed and divided westerners and continue to do so. Religion and Science have never been compatible realms of thought and western civilization has always been marked by an unresolved tension between the two. The eighteenth-century is often refered to as the Age of Reason but reason alone does not fulfill all of mans needs and the Romantic period that followed marked a return to faith and feeling. The Victorian Age is marked by a restless search to find a balance between the reasoning head and the feeling heart and soul. Houghton sees the English as a very pragmatic people and though he is careful to show that on no issue did any two Victorians think alike, he does show that the English shared certain habits of mind. Houghton does not mention Nationalism by name but that word was constantly in my mind as I read this book for Houghton shows that the English were aware that they shared certain characteristics with each other which made them distinct from say the French. After 1789 the English saw the French as nation destroyers while they saw themselves as nation builders -- the fact that they defeated the French and presided over the building of the largest empire the world had ever known made them acutely aware that they were part of a special breed. The most famous men of the age did not merely speak to the English masses but preached to them -- and that tone and style of speaking is perhaps even more important and revealing than the actual substance of what they were saying for the English felt they were on a mission. Precislely what kind of mission they were on was impossible to say with any certainty but for a spell the Victorians felt they were a model nation and thus the nation in the best position to mold other nations. This confidence or arrogance peaked around mid-century and by centuries end Englands moment had passed as other nations(USA & Germany) began to dominate the world stage. Historians explain empires in a number of ways, Houghton however is not the kind of historian to make any sweeping generalizations. How such a small island nation could come to rule the globe is something he never tries to answer. He confines himself to analyzing the Victorians patterns of thought for it is the Victorian personality that captures his interest. This is the kind of thoroughly researched book(Houghton quotes from every major text of the era) that gives you a look into the workings of a half dozen exemplary personalities and how they worked through the issues of the day for themselves. Houghton gives extended consideration to the works of Carlyle, Ruskin,Arnold, Mill, Tennyson, Browning, Dickens, & Eliot but he quotes from other lesser lights as well. My personal favorite from this era is John Stuart Mill and the man who introduced the pragmatic Victorians to

I was recommended by a professor in the university to read this book (I am a student studying Victorian Literature) in the first place, and after reading it, I found this book so informative and easy-to-read that it has now become one of my 'handbook' for the Victorian era. This book tells you in nearly every aspect but in a very concise way how the Victorians back then think and believe. I personally think that this is more than just a book about some history and facts of the people living in the 19th century England. Upon reading it, readers will surely be able to appreciate the works of those Victorian writers/poets more because they can then really comprehend how the Victorians' lives and beliefs were like, and how and why they would behave the way they did, and most important of all, that they were not as old-fashioned and conservative as contemporary people think they were.

First published in 1957 with the intent to show some of the roots of the "modern mind" (which was then still recovering from McCarthyism), Walter Houghton's book more than accomplishes its stated goals. THE VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND is divided in to three parts in which Houghton examines Victorian emotional, intellectual and moral attitudes. He bases these discussions on the premise that 1830-1870 was an "age of transition," and that the Victorian English were the first to think of their own time as "an era of change FROM the past TO the future."The Victorians found the pace of their life compared to that of their grandfathers to be inordinately fast, they both lamented and welcomed the breakdown of old regimes and the coming into its own of the Industrial Revolution. Darwin's theory of evolution made thousands of them quake in their boots--even though so many of them were raised on a wrathful God more than a loving God, the prospect of no God at all sent many running for the metaphorical hills. Throughout the book, Houghton extensively quotes the Victorians themselves (e.g. Ruskin, Arnold, Carlyle, Charles Kingsley) and it is shocking and uncanny how many times what was written a good 150 years ago resembles what you might find in the press and literature of today. This from 1851: "everybody has his own little ISM . . . by which the country can be saved." How about this line from Carlyle's PAST AND PRESENT: "we have profoundly forgotten everywhere that Cash-payment is not the sole relation of human beings."A key to understanding how Victorians thought about themselves and their world, Houghton points out, lies in accepting the many contradictions and tensions of the age, most importantly their overwhelming optimism balanced against their high level of anxiety. Of the book's fourteen chapters, particularly interesting and provocative are those on "The Critical Spirit--and The Will to Believe," "The Commercial Spirit," "Dogmatism," and "Hypocrisy."Houghton admits from the start that he's out for the "general sense" of how people thought, and he narrows his purview even further to the literate classes. He therefore makes many sweeping statements that could still meet with criticism--even with the quotations he provides from the writers of the time. THE VICTORIAN FRAME OF MIND is still a useful background text for scholars, though it might put off those with ISMs on their shoulders. Moreover, it is a rich and engaging book for the student or amateur of the Victorian era, which, while different in several important ways from our own American society, is all too eerily similar when you come right down to it. Highly recommended!