English

Abstract

This is the first volume in the series 'Classics after Antiquity' edited by Alastair Blanshard, Shane Butler and Emily Greenwood. The editors describe it as 'a series that aims to unsettle, provoke debate and, above all, stimulate a re-evaluation of assumptions about the relationship between Greek and Roman classical pasts and modern histories' (p. xi). This Richardson's contribution certainly does, but, while it gathers a wealth of sensational material pertinent to the analysis of the Victorian obsession with the Classics, it also frustrates and at times annoys the reader because of its loose punctuation, overly indulgent rhetorical style and the use of suggestive allusion that borders on Tacitus's use of innuendo and that is, in places, entirely unwarranted (more on these points later).