Product Description

Terry revisits one of the best-selling subjects on the list, and gives us more of the grim truth about the nasty nineteenth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123960 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-07
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

`The Villainous Victorians lets you in on the darkest secrets of Queen Victoria's Britain ...'
`The Villainous Victorians lets you in on the darkest secrets of Queen Victoria's Britain - from hard-living criminal kids to harder-hearted toffs who were criminally cruel.

In the dark days of Queen Victoria, who were the `real' villains? The poor, pilfering people of the slums? Or the mean, miserly men in their massive mansions? And how would YOU have got on in those terrible times?
Teachers may tell you Victoria's Britain was an exciting place......but it was a time of cruelty and wickedness.
What you need is a book that tells you the other side of the story - the `villainous' Victorians .............

Read on for prisoners, poisoners and Peelers and some devious dodges for making money that you SHOULDN'T try.
Find out about the famous and the forgotten Victorians, then discover who tops the charts as the biggest villain of them all!
History has never been so horrible!'

A witty, colourful cover opens to 127 pages, split over 13 chapters:-

Terrible timeline 1830s-1840s
Cruel criminals
Cruel to kids
Hanging around
Terrible timeline 1850s - 1860s
Mr Peel's pained police
Wicked for women
Foul fun
Terrible timeline 1870s - 1890s
Talk like a villainous Victorian
Criminal cures
Test your teacher
Top ten villainous Victorians

with an introduction and an epilogue.

Written with the typical Deary humour, in a variety of fonts, and superb illustrations/cartoons throughout, from Martin Brown.

Marvellous!!!
Terry Deary shows in this book how he still a brilliant author after 10 years writing the Horrible Histories books.In Villainious Victorians, Terry revisits the Victorian era,telling us more fatual facts about that time,such as how was the Victorians life,with the chapters:Cruel Criminals,Cruel To Kids,Hanging Around,Mr. Peel's pained police,Wicked for Women,Foul Fun,Talk Like A Villainious Victorian,Criminal Cures,Test your Teacher,Top Ten Villainious Victorians and the Terrible Timeline.
It also tells you:
-Why Burglers were scared of bogies?
-Which poet said he ate an ape?
-How a snick fadger might kiddy-nap your spangle?
-What's a garroter?
The illustrations of Martin Brown are perfect and complement the text with jokes.

Disappointing
I have been reading this series since I was 6. I am now 16, and pretty much own all thirty or so of the books. Being a little more aware, I can say this book, although definitely not being the worst, is one of Deary's weakest. He is taking the over-used default anti-rich stance when beginning the book, and I actually left the book for a while. I got bored of his resentful rants about who 'the real villains' were. There are useful facts and some funny moments, but i can't help thinking Deary is dousing the book in too much politics. For some of his best try the Awesome Egyptians or the Rotten Romans.