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Carregando... Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England (original: 2013; edição: 2013)de Neil McKenna
Informações da ObraFanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England de Neil McKenna (2013)
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. In the right hands, this could have been a fascinating work of history, but while the blurb for Fanny and Stella states that it's "meticulously researched and dazzlingly written", for me it failed on both counts. McKenna has clearly read widely on the trial at the heart of this book and on Victorian England, but it's not clear that he's read deeply on it; not only does he fail to follow some interesting lines of inquiry and contextualisation which are only hinted at here, he also frequently and infuriatingly commits the cardinal sin of the popular historian, speculating wildly and giving that speculation as well-grounded fact. I lost count of the number of times I rolled my eyes at McKenna telling us what one person thought about another, what another person felt during sex, what emotions ran through an entire crowd—there is no way for him to know any of these things! If you want to write fiction, write fiction, and the style of the prose here does indicate that McKenna's tempted in that direction. While the purple prose may have been a deliberate affectation, a parody of Victoriana, it's one which is deeply wearying after several pages. There's enough drama inherent in the central story without any additional baroque flourishes: Frederick 'Fanny' Park, a judge’s son, and Ernest 'Stella' Boulton, two middle-class transvestite prostitutes who consorted with labourers and lords and whose arrest on the charge of enticing others to commit sodomy transfixed England in 1870. Diverting enough to read to the end, but not to be recommended as a work of history. "With a cast of peers, politicians and prostitutes, drag queens, doctors and detectives, Fanny and Stella us a Victorian Peepshow, exposing the startling underbelly of ninteenth-century London. By turns tragic and comic, meticulously reserched and dazzlingly written, Fanny and Stella is an enthralling tour-de-force." I was a little disapointed in that I found this book more tragic than funny. I started to feel sorry for many of the people involved in this case. at times i forgot that I was reading a story based on real life as the word usage and short tales pulled the characters to the forfrunt of the story. I would then be dragged back to the facts of the case reminding me that this is based on true life. In all an enthralling read that may affect how you see history in the future sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
Prêmios
28th April 1870. Fanny and Stella, the flamboyantly dressed Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton, are causing a stir in the Strand Theatre. All eyes are riveted upon their lascivious oglings of the gentlemen in the stalls. Moments later they are led away by the police. What followed was a scandal that shocked and titillated Victorian England in equal measure. It turned out that the alluring Miss Fanny Park and Miss Stella Boulton were no ordinary young women. Far from it. In fact, 'Boulton and Park' were young men who liked to dress as women. When the Metropolitan Police launched a secret campaign to bring about their downfall, they were arrested and subjected to a sensational show trial in Westminster Hall. As the trial of 'the Young Men in Women's Clothes' unfolded, Fanny and Stella's extraordinary lives as wives and daughters, actresses and whores were revealed to an incredulous public. With a cast of peers, politicians and prostitutes, drag queens, doctors and detectives, Fanny and Stella is a Victorian peepshow, exposing the startling underbelly of nineteenth-century London. By turns tragic and comic, meticulously researched and dazzlingly written, Fanny and Stella is an enthralling tour de force. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)306.7780922Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Relations between the sexes, sexualities, love Practices Transvestites, Transexuals, Trans, Genderqueer, TransgenderClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/04/25/fanny-and-stella-neil-mckenna/ ( )