Word: victoriana
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Peter Lovesey's Bertie and the Tinman (Mysterious Press; 212 pages; $15.95) features a first-person amateur detective who is none other than the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria's son and heir. Lovesey proved himself the world's foremost concocter of latter-day Victoriana in his series of mysteries built around Sergeant Cribb, then echoed the early 20th century in the nostalgic Hollywood story Keystone and the brilliantly plotted thriller The False Inspector Dew. Here he returns to 19th century London and, as always, to a subtle but relentless dissection of Britain's unjust social-class system. The rueful...
...what works in South Carolina may not take in Southern California. San ; Diego's $140 million Horton Plaza shopping center, a manic postmodern pastiche, has been successful since it opened in 1985. But across the street, the spruced-up Gaslamp Quarter -- 16 blocks of eclectic Victoriana, until recently occupied mainly by bums, hookers and porn shops -- is still a gentrification wanna...
...many heavy metal rings that the vertebrae would separate. In the early 19th century, English fashion in female bodies was ethereal, emaciated; a tubercular fragility was considered attractive. Women subsisted on a diet of vinegar and belladonna to achieve the Pre-Raphaelite "fatal slimness." The crowning, confining glory of Victoriana was the whalebone corset, which gave Actress Lillie Langtry her "ideal" 38-18-38 measurements, and which sometimes displaced internal organs. For some women, that was not enough: in pursuit of the hourglass figure they underwent surgical removal of their lower ribs...