Audiobook12 hours
Palaces of Pleasure: From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football, How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment
Written by Lee Jackson
Narrated by Liam Gerrard
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the nineteenth century's growing industrialized class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their every whim was satisfied by entrepreneurs building new venues for popular amusement. Contrary to their reputation as dour, buttoned-up prudes, the Victorians reveled in these newly created "palaces of pleasure".
In this vivid, captivating book, Lee Jackson charts the rise of well-known institutions such as gin palaces, music halls, seaside resorts, and football clubs, as well as the more peculiar attractions of the pleasure garden and international exposition, ranging from parachuting monkeys and human zoos to theme park thrill rides. He explores how vibrant mass entertainment came to dominate leisure time and how the attempts of religious groups and secular improvers to curb "immorality" in the pub, variety theater, and dance hall faltered in the face of commercial success.
The Victorians' unbounded love of leisure created a nationally significant and influential economic force: the modern entertainment industry.
In this vivid, captivating book, Lee Jackson charts the rise of well-known institutions such as gin palaces, music halls, seaside resorts, and football clubs, as well as the more peculiar attractions of the pleasure garden and international exposition, ranging from parachuting monkeys and human zoos to theme park thrill rides. He explores how vibrant mass entertainment came to dominate leisure time and how the attempts of religious groups and secular improvers to curb "immorality" in the pub, variety theater, and dance hall faltered in the face of commercial success.
The Victorians' unbounded love of leisure created a nationally significant and influential economic force: the modern entertainment industry.
Author
Lee Jackson
Lee Jackson is an Award-winning Motivational Speaker, Author of 13 books and a leading Presentation Skills Coach. He is also the a past President of the Professional Speaking Association in the UK & Ireland. For more information visit http://www.leejackson.org or on twitter @leejackson
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Reviews for Palaces of Pleasure
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On the whole, I was both entertained and informed with this book, as the author walks you through the rise of commercial entertainment in Victorian England; much of this being wrapped up with varying degrees of handwringing over how much independent space adult women were to be granted. Also, while Jackson apparently started this book mostly concerned about the roots of "gin palace" (aka the modern bar) and music halls, the most interesting portions to me dealt with the rise of what you might call theme parks, at the conjunction where "pleasure gardens" and exhibition complexes (epitomized by the Crystal Palace) met, and the business juggling needed to keep them going. To be honest, the portion dealing with the rise of football/soccer as a pro endeavor felt a little throwaway for me; the tie-in being that a lot of the early big matches took place on exhibition grounds.