The Victorian Undertaker

Trevor May. A5, 32pp. The Victorians were familiar with death and, while they did not welcome it, they felt relatively at ease with it. Sustained by their religious beliefs, the Victorians felt able to celebrate death and to accord full rites of passage to the deceased. This book looks at the background to Victorian ideas and at the way in which those beliefs were given substance in the funeral and through the practice of mourning. Well illustrated with pictures of funerals, corteges, hearses, dresswear, the funeral bill, epitaphs, etc.