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    One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858
    One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858
    One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858
    Audiobook12 hours

    One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858

    Written by Rosemary Ashton

    Narrated by Corrie James

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    While 1858 in London may have been noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the sewage-filled Thames River, the year is otherwise little remembered. And yet, historian Rosemary Ashton reveals in this compelling microhistory, 1858 was marked by significant, if unrecognized, turning points. For ordinary people, and also for the rich, famous, and powerful, the months from May to August turned out to be a summer of consequence.



    Ashton mines Victorian letters and gossip, diaries, court records, newspapers, and other contemporary sources to uncover historically crucial moments in the lives of three protagonists—Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Disraeli. She also introduces others who gained renown in the headlines of the day, among them George Eliot, Karl Marx, William Thackeray, and Edward Bulwer Lytton. Ashton reveals invisible threads of connection among Londoners at every social level in 1858, bringing the celebrated city and its citizens vibrantly to life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 1, 2017
    ISBN9781541479722
    One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin, Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858

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    Reviews for One Hot Summer

    3.5/5

    15 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Engaging and well written! Great example of popular history.
    • 3/5
      This historical work recounts the summer of 1858 in Great Britain, specifically London, during a time defined by unprecedented hot temperatures that exacerbated the foul stench of the polluted River Thames.  The Great Stink, as it became known, motivated political action in Houses of Parliament and at the municipal level to clean up the river.  Ashton's work also focuses on the outcomes of other legislation that year such as the legalization of divorce, new regulations for credentialing medical practitioners, and changes in the treatment of the mentally ill.

      The core of this book though focuses on the lives of three major figures of the era with alliterative names: Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, and Benjamin Disraeli.  In 1858, Darwin became aware that another scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had also devised a theory of natural selection, prompting Darwin to stop dragging his feet and begin to write and publish On the Origin of Species.  Dickens, meanwhile, is in the midst of nasty split with his wife due to an affair, while also falling out with fellow writer Thackery.  Disraeli is in the best position to address the Great Stink and uses his power to push through the Thames Purification Act, as well as working on other legislation such as no longer requiring Jewish MPs to swear by a Christian God.

      The book is a snapshot of a single period, but it feels like a jumble that lacks a coherent theme.  And the stories of the three main protagonist by necessity venture far into their lives well before and after 1858.  A lot of the text reads as being gossipy, yet delivered very dryly.