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Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827-1891)
www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2003/
bodichon2.html
Full biography of a fascinating social activist and suffragist. Also contains
an excerpt from her pamphlet A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most
Important Laws of England Concerning Women (1854).
Bastardy and Baby Farming in Victorian England
www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1989-0/
haller.htm
Paper written by Dorothy L Haller that looks in great detail at the prevalence
of illegitimacy and baby farming in Victorian England.
Birth Control
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wbirth.htm
The long story of the campaign by women to be in control of their own fertility.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 and Sexual Assault on
Minors
www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7023/
Consent.html
A detailed account of editor W T Stead and his 'Maiden Tribute' articles in
the Pall Mall Gazette, generally credited with hastening the passage
of the Criminal Justice Amendment Act, raising the age of consent to 16 in
1885.
Josephine Butler
www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2001/
butler2.html
Biography of the woman who fought the Contagious Disease Acts and worked to
improve the conditions of prostitutes.
A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cranworth's Marriage
and Divorce Bill (1855)
www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/norton/
letter.html
Online transcript of the original letter written by reformer
Caroline Norton to Queen Victoria in 1855. She argues that women effectively
have no status in a country run by a woman, and asks for the queen's
assistance in making changes.
'These Illegit'mate Days': Attitudes towards pregnancy and Far
from the Madding Crowd
http://hermes.andover.edu/english/200/
tpelliott.html
Academic paper that explores Thomas Hardy's depiction and criticism of Victorian
society's attitudes towards illegitimacy in his novel.
Victorians Uncovered
www.channel4.com/history/microsites/V/
victorians/index.html
Lifts the skirts of 19th-century respectability during which time child prostitution
flourished, white slavery was rife and the age of consent was 12 when Victoria
came to the throne.
Women's Status in Mid-19th-century England: A brief overview
http://members.lycos.co.uk/HastingsHistory/
19/legal.htm
Interesting, well-written article covering everything from education and sex
to clothes.
Books
 City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of sexual danger in late-Victorian
London by Judith Walkowitz (Virago Press, 1992)
A study of late-Victorian London life: the music hall; spectator sports; the
mingling of high and low life; sexual repression; scandal and the policing
of women.
Get this book
The English Vice: Beating, sex and shame in Victorian England and
after by Ian Gibson (Duckworth, 1979)
An insight into the murkier side of the Victorians with research taken from
the correspondence columns in the periodicals of Victorian England – sub-pornographic
letters that appeared in the genteel women's magazines.
Get this book
 Love and Dirt: The marriage of Arthur Munby and Hannah Cullwick by
Diane Atkinson (Pan, 2004)
Solicitor Arthur Munby and servant Hannah Cullwick's clandestine love affair
endured more than 50 years. Both kept diaries, and letters were exchanged.
Drawing on these and on Munby's photographs of Hannah – which catalogue
a tale of sexual obsession: he adored seeing her 'in her dirt' from scrubbing
steps and cleaning chimneys and she reciprocated with a literally slavish devotion – this
work paints a picture of the wilder shores of Victorian sexuality.
Get this book
 Nineteenth-century Writings on Homosexuality by Chris White
(Taylor & Francis, 1999)
Comprehensive collection includes prose, poetry, fiction, history and polemic
from 1810 to 1914. It includes writing on: trials and scandals; censorship
and homophobia; cultural and personal history; love and friendship; lesbianism;
aestheticism and decadence; sexual tourism and colonialism; cross-class desire;
and sodomy and sadomasochism.
Get this book
 The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde by Neil McKenna (Century, 2003)
Meticulously and brilliantly reconstructs Oscar Wilde's emotional and sexual
life, painting an astonishingly frank and vivid psychological portrait of
a troubled genius who chose to martyr himself for the cause of love between
men.
Get this book
 Sex Politics and Society: The regulation of sexuality since 1800 by
Jeffrey Weeks (Longman Group, 1989)
A study of the regulation of sexuality in Britain since 1800, examining changes
in ideas, the law, sexual morality, the family, birth control and sexual practice.
Get this book
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