Sentimental Collaboration: Mourning and Middle-Class Identity in Nineteenth Century America (New Americanists)

Rating:
Summary: A review of M.L. Kete's book.
Review: Ms Kete has written an academic work of great interest to those of us wanting a better understanding of the Victorian frame of mind toward death and mourning. It is easy to view the rituals of mourning from this era as silly, unnecessary and contrived but with the aid of this book I have come to view them with a different eye. I now understand that our era deals with death and mourning a loss in a far too frivolous manner. I think sometimes that we believe ourselves and our time to be the pinnacle of civilization. However, Ms Kete has handily pointed out that we have perhaps thrown the baby out with the bath water. I will mind my passage through this life with greater attention from now on. This modern discourse of rituals and literature is an excellent source of profile information for a time which we truly do not understand but should.

Rating:
Summary: A review of M.L. Kete's book.
Review: Ms Kete has written an academic work of great interest to those of us wanting a better understanding of the Victorian frame of mind toward death and mourning. It is easy to view the rituals of mourning from this era as silly, unnecessary and contrived but with the aid of this book I have come to view them with a different eye. I now understand that our era deals with death and mourning a loss in a far too frivolous manner. I think sometimes that we believe ourselves and our time to be the pinnacle of civilization. However, Ms Kete has handily pointed out that we have perhaps thrown the baby out with the bath water. I will mind my passage through this life with greater attention from now on. This modern discourse of rituals and literature is an excellent source of profile information for a time which we truly do not understand but should.