Death, Grief and Poverty in Britain, 1870–1914Cambridge University Press, 2005 M07 25 - 294 pages With high mortality rates, it has been assumed that the poor in Victorian and Edwardian Britain did not mourn their dead. Contesting this approach, Julie-Marie Strange studies the expression of grief among the working class, demonstrating that poverty increased - rather than deadened - it. She illustrates the mourning practices of the working classes through chapters addressing care of the corpse, the funeral, the cemetery, commemoration, and high infant mortality rates. The book draws on a broad range of sources to analyse the feelings and behaviours of the labouring poor, using not only personal testimony but also fiction, journalism, and official reports. It concludes that poor people did not only use spoken or written words to express their grief, but also complex symbols, actions and, significantly, silence. This book will be an invaluable contribution to an important and neglected area of social and cultural history. |
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Page 2
... coffins and their contents spilled from the earth , Dickens was also suspicious of the commercialisation of burial space , embodied in profit - making joint - stock cemetery companies . A thriving trade in funeral dress and increasingly ...
... coffins and their contents spilled from the earth , Dickens was also suspicious of the commercialisation of burial space , embodied in profit - making joint - stock cemetery companies . A thriving trade in funeral dress and increasingly ...
Page 7
... coffins , with little or no ceremony : it was the ' ultimate degradation ' for the individual and the ' ultimate disgrace ' for a Victorian worker's family . Two years prior to the passage of the New Poor Law , the Anatomy Act ...
... coffins , with little or no ceremony : it was the ' ultimate degradation ' for the individual and the ' ultimate disgrace ' for a Victorian worker's family . Two years prior to the passage of the New Poor Law , the Anatomy Act ...
Page 12
... coffin alongside speculations about the Peckover coffers, and the boisterous revelry of the wakes tea. Suitably impressed, neighbours and guests exclaim: 'Everythink [sic] most respectable , I'm sure ! '43 Vaguely ridiculous in. 40 Ibid ...
... coffin alongside speculations about the Peckover coffers, and the boisterous revelry of the wakes tea. Suitably impressed, neighbours and guests exclaim: 'Everythink [sic] most respectable , I'm sure ! '43 Vaguely ridiculous in. 40 Ibid ...
Page 13
... coffin and the procession to the cemetery are not remarked upon . The only evidence of mourning paraphernalia is a passing comment by a visitor to the house that Jane is wearing black . Drawing attention to a solitary gesture of ...
... coffin and the procession to the cemetery are not remarked upon . The only evidence of mourning paraphernalia is a passing comment by a visitor to the house that Jane is wearing black . Drawing attention to a solitary gesture of ...
Page 29
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Contents
1 | |
2 Life sickness and death | 27 |
3 Caring for the corpse | 66 |
4 The funeral | 98 |
reassessing the pauper burial | 131 |
the cemetery as a landscape for grief | 163 |
7 Loss memory and the management of feeling | 194 |
8 Grieving for dead children | 230 |
death grief and the Great War | 263 |
Bibliography | 274 |
Index | 290 |
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Common terms and phrases
Anfield Cemetery argued Asylum babies BALS ABZ belief bereaved body BOHT Bolton Bolton Burial Board burial ground burial insurance burial service burial space cadaver Cambridge Catholic cemetery child Childhood classes coffin commemoration common grave concerning context corpse culture of death customs Cwmardy D. H. Lawrence dead deceased died dying Edwardian emotional emphasised exhumation expression father funeral Gissing grave deeds grave owners grave space grief guardians Haslingden headstone highlights History Ibid identity implied infant interment Jalland Jones Lancashire Lancet Liverpool Daily Post living London loss LVRO 352 HEA Manchester Maud Pember Reeves memory mortality mother mourning neighbours noted notions OH Transcript Oxford parents parish pauper burial pauper grave perceived perceptions post-mortem poverty private grave public grave Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Reeves relatives represented respectability rites rituals sense sick significance social spiritual stillbirth story suggests Tape University Press Victorian whilst widow woman women workhouse working-class culture