Shopping as Comedy: A Victorian Scrapbook

This volume is a critical edition of a Victorian scrapbook, composed of cuttings from advertising images from the 1880’s. These images are arranged in hand-drawn domestic spaces and embellished with watercolour details. At the foot of each page is a
handwritten running text, written by an unknown Victorian author, that provides a narrative to explain the accompanying images. The album also includes four original short stories, interspersed by twenty-three vignettes, which, like advertisements in
a magazine, echo and reinforce themes in the surrounding content. The album highlights issues of concern to women at the fin de siècle: romance, marriage, shopping, and house decoration.

The satirical commentary on late Victorian shopping and commodity culture provides a fascinating insight into the interests and responses of consumers during this period. The volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of literary and advertising history.

Alexis Easley is Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.