The Visitors

This work describes the stories of some of the remarkable foreigners who came to 19th century Britain bringing with them new ideas, values and skills, cracking open its insularity and making the Victorian Age far more liberal and dynamic than we commonly believe it to be. Whether charting the triumph of the exhibition of Gericault's painting "The Raft of the Medusa", tracing the exasperation of Richard Wagner at the philistinism of English audiences, following the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson round provincial lecture halls, or detailing the bizarre and hilarious activities of American table-rappers, Australian cricketers and Italian ballerinas, this book emphasizes the richness and diversity of Victorian society.