Entertaining and informative set of 'essays' about various aspects of Victorian life that the Victorians tended to keep secret - sex (both hetero- and homosexual), drugs, madness, murder to name a few topics. The authors draw extensively on diaries and other contemporary sources. ( )

If you know anything about Stephen Fry, you know what to expect when listening to Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets. It is a very clever and entertaining look at many of the myths regarding Victorian society. With his droll British humor, Mr. Fry covers everything from sex and pornography to murder and the adoption of modern detective skills. He manages to educate while making fun of modern-day assumptions regarding this historical period. Never lewd, lascivious, or graphic, he presents each topic with discretion and grace and with tongue firmly in cheek. If only all history could be so enjoyable. ( )

Enjoyable. ( )

20% of why I bought this was a mild interest in 'Victorian Secrets', but 80% was because Stephen Fry was narrating it.

Neither disappointed. If you don't like Stephen Fry - and I don't know how that would be possible - you won't like this audiobook. If you do, you'll probably enjoy it even if some of the stuff he discusses is old hat.

The recording is broken up into 12 episodes that each cover a different facet of Victorian culture. It's debatable whether or not a lot of these are "secrets" in the strictest sense of the word; more that some of these are things the average modern day person might not have known about the era, or had ever given any thought to (sewer pirates anyone?). It seems this was created specifically for Audible by Audible, but it sounds much like the BBC Radio Shows in format - each episode in introduced, and there are excepts read by other authors/scholars about their work as it pertains to the episode's subject. I was chuffed to not only recognise some of them, but to have already read their work.

My personal prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box (or my Kinder surprise for the younger demographic) was the last episode: it was about Sherlock Holmes - squeeee! He talks about the mystery surrounding aspects of Holmes' life, but even better, the episode includes a recording of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself discussing Sherlock's creation. Bliss, with a hint of Scottish burr. ( )

Entertaining and informative set of 'essays' about various aspects of Victorian life that the Victorians tended to keep secret - sex (both hetero- and homosexual), drugs, madness, murder to name a few topics. The authors draw extensively on diaries and other contemporary sources. ( )