Ebook: One hot summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858
- Tags: Eighteen fifty-eight A.D, Dickens Charles -- 1812-1870, Darwin Charles -- 1809-1882, Disraeli Benjamin -- 1804-1881, Great Stink London England 1858, London (England) -- Social conditions -- 19th century, London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century, England -- London
- Year: 2018
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- City: England;London;Great Stink;1858;London (England
- Edition: First published in paperback
- Language: English
- epub
London, 1858. Noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the sewage-filled Thames River, the year is otherwise little remembered. Ashton reveals that thanks to significant, if unrecognized, turning points the months from May to August turned out to be a summer of consequence. She mines Victorian letters and gossip, diaries, court records, newspapers, and other contemporary sources to uncover historically crucial moments in the lives of three protagonists: Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Disraeli. Invisible threads of connection among Londoners at every social level in 1858 bring the celebrated city and its citizens vibrantly to life.