The Victorian Book of the Dead Edited by Chris Woodyard Review

Chris Woodyard, author of the The Ghosts of the Past series, digs through long-buried newspapers and journals, for this fascinating look at the 19th-century obsession with the culture of death. The Victorian Book of the Dead unearths extraordinary tales of Victorian funeral fads and fancies, ghost stories, bizarre deaths, mourning novelties, gallows humor, premature burial, post-mortem photographs, death omens, and funeral disasters. Resurrected from original sources, these accounts reveal the oddities and eccentricities of Victorian mourning. Packed with macabre anecdotes, this diverting, yet gruesome collection presents tales ranging from the paranormal and shocking to the heartbreaking.

Happy Halloween! This is the first year I'm not doing anything for the holiday beyond rewatching the Halloween episodes of Bob's Burgers and How I Met Your Mother and listening to The Amphibious Man on Bandcamp since I have other things going on in the coming days that require my attention, but it's still my favorite holiday, something that's fairly obvious given my taste in humor and literature borders on the dark side. Like this book, which I was saving exclusively for Halloween.

This isn't a fine, serious work of nonfiction. Instead, it's more on par with the fun to read and vaguely trashy nonfiction like the book Weird New Jersey and its many spinoffs. It's made up of newspaper articles and commentary from the Victorian times detailing their quite morbid culture of death, something that the Victorians were notorious for. In this book, Woodyard discusses everything from death photography to being buried alive to the clothing mourners wore and the Victorian strive to do everything, including mourning, properly. 

My favorite chapter was probably the chapter Died of Lizards, about strange ways Victorians met their ends, including by a gas addicted bird, 2 women who lost everyone in their family within a span of a very short time (in one case, her child was struck by the hearse carrying her husband), and "the effects of 'skipping the rope'." whatever the hell that means. There's something very Gorey-esque about these stories, and it reminded me of two of his short stories in particular- The Gashlycrumb Tinies (obviously), and The Hapless Child. What really takes the cake about these stories is dry way the reporters comment on these strange demises. Needless to say, I found them hilarious.

The fashion historian in me also feels the need comment on how much I liked the chapter Crape too. It's got lots of fun details on the garments worn by mourners.

The Victorian Book of the Dead is a coffee table book that also happens to have some great information on Victorian death. And, of course, it's the perfect book to read on a chilly, October night. Recommended.

8 out of 10