Peter Gay. The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Frd. Volume 1, Edutn of the Sens. New York: Oxford Universy Prs. 1984. Pp. 534. $25.00 | The Amerin Historil Review | Oxford Amic

Contents:

• THE BOURGEOIS EXPERIENCE: VICTORIA TO FRD, BY PETER GAY
• PETER GAY, THE BOURGEOIS EXPERIENCE, VICTORIA TO FRD, VOL. II : THE TENR PASSN, OXFORD-NEW YORK, OXFORD UNIVERSY PRS, 1986, 490 P.

THE BOURGEOIS EXPERIENCE: VICTORIA TO FRD, BY PETER GAY

The Bourgeois Experience: Victoria to Frd Volume 1: Edutn of the Sens: 9780195033526: Gay, Peter: Books.

PETER GAY, THE BOURGEOIS EXPERIENCE, VICTORIA TO FRD, VOL. II : THE TENR PASSN, OXFORD-NEW YORK, OXFORD UNIVERSY PRS, 1986, 490 P.

Edutn of the Sens, the first book of Peter Gay's projected multi-volume study of the European and Amerin middle class om the 1820s to the outbreak of World War I, re-exam the sexual behavr and attus of Victorians. Same go for at least one of the reviews seri by Peter Gay chronicl the "Bourgeois Century", roughly 1820 to the first world war.

Gay's approach is anchored by a mment to Frdian theory and a cross-cultural approach that tak Brish, French, German and Amerin culture wh equal scholarship is reful and nuanced. That is not to say that Gay foc exclively on the experience of men, far om .

Gay is reful to expla the background of the neteenth century: i.

Gay her experience to monstrate that the sex life of the Victorian was more plited then prev scholars thought (this is the overridg theme of all of his work this area) march through Bourgeois attus towards sex wh marriage (i.

By Peter Gay.

Peter Gay is an amb and unually wi-rangg historian of culture, and no one n fail to admire the dtry wh which he seeks knowledge and his zt munitg . ”1 Profsor Gay has an engagg manner and a sharp eye for a tellg quotatn and a choice example.

What she was not (as Gay claims) was a bourgeoise: no bourgeoise ever ate breakfast off solid ’s e of Frd also seems to me misleadg. Then, due urse, was seismic; but is largely irrelevant terms of Gay’s perd.

Gay appears to be a more or ls orthodox Frdian, and that is a disadvantage to a historian now that most of have e to see Frd not as a scientist but as an imagative wrer, if an origal and illumatg one. Gay is not so foolish as to buy the full psychobgraphy and psychohistory package, but I shudr when he tells his purpose is “to tegrate psychoanalysis wh history.

Gay, ed, is obssed wh Frd, who pops up his text persistently and ngoly. Th, discsg Mary Wood-Allen’s book on what to tell children about sex, Gay nnot help notg: “Sigmund Frd tensely disliked this kd of equivotn. Gladstone had eight children fourteen years, Gay feels bound to add: “The Frds had six children eight years.

”_____________But a more fundamental objectn to Gay’s amework is his e of the word “bourgeois” to characterize his perd. Gay himself adms and dismiss at length problems of fn, ncedg that some historians argue that the realy of bourgeois power the 19th century has been much exaggerated.

The Atrian empire was ls homogeneo, but all sentials urt and aristocracy retaed their power until the Hapsburgs left their throne: bourgeois polics was for lol and ocsnally regnal was a more plex se. Gay’s notn of the “bourgeois century” do not f the facts of 19th-century Bra.