Death was everywhere for the Victorians, but it was never commonplace

Rites of Passage: Death and Mourning in Victorian Britain Judith Flanders

Picador, pp.352, 25

Death’s great paradox is its inconstant constancy. Its forms and rituals change from generation to generation. In our own era, antibiotics have reduced the chance of a fatal infection, and average life expectancy has risen to our eighties. Direct cremation means we can even ship Auntie Maudie, when her time comes, to the crematorium sight unseen and have her ashes returned via DHL.

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Taggedcholera, Funerals, Graveyards, infant mortality, mourning clothes, public grieving, tuberculosis, typhus, Victorian history

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Death was everywhere for the Victorians, but it was never commonplace

In a society obsessed with the trappings of grief, funerals were often elaborate occasions, with commemorative medals struck and strict rules applied to the period of mourning

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