Victorians said "prunes" when taking pictures. Whenever we take photos, we say “cheese” because it makes us smile. However, smiling in photographs was once seen as a vulgar act. To keep a neutral face, they would say “prunes,” there was little to no chance of it forming a smile. ...
In making a rhetorical approach to various discursive acts, one may speak of the rhetoricofa discourse—say,Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” (1842)—and mean by that the strategies whereby the poet communicated with his contemporaries, in this case the Victorians, or with modern man...
s lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston attracted thousands of people of both sexes and every social station. Lyell wrote enthusiastic and informative books, in 1845 and 1849, about each of his two long visits to the New World. Unlike the majority of well-off Victorians, Lyell was a ...
John Drydenand countless others held that Virgil’s poetry had reached the ultimate perfection of form andethicalcontent. There was some reaction against him in theRomanticperiod, but the Victorians, such asMatthew ArnoldandAlfred, Lord Tennyson, rediscovered in full measure that sensitivity andpathos...
In making a rhetorical approach to various discursive acts, one may speak of the rhetoricofa discourse—say,Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” (1842)—and mean by that the strategies whereby the poet communicated with his contemporaries, in this case the Victorians, or with modern man...