Ebook: Clothing and landscape in Victorian England: working-class dress and rural life

"During the Victorian period, England changed from being a predominantly rural to an increasingly urban and suburban society. Clothing and Landscape in Victorian England explores visual and literary representations of clothing in the context of these rapid changes in Victorian life and landscape. Rachel Worth traces how 'traditional' styles of dress -- like men's smock-frocks or women's sun-bonnets -- came to be replaced by 'fashion'. She draws comparisons between different depictions of clothing by artists as diverse as Helen Allingham and George Clausen, as well as by photographers like Henry Peach Robinson and Peter Henry Emerson. She also examines literary accounts of rural life and rural dress, ranging from parliamentary commissions to autobiographies and the novels and poetry of Thomas Hardy. She situates these representations in relation to the particular pattern of survival and collection by museums of garments of rural provenance. Examining the clothing of the rural working classes and its representation in this way, this book illuminates wider social and cultural aspects of society, including rural poverty and changing male and female work patterns, depopulation of the countryside and associated urbanization. It also firmly establishes the importance of clothing as a reference point that enhances our understanding of the social history of the Victorian period"--.