Review of Nina Auerbach, Private Theatricals: The Lives of the Victorians

Abstract

Praises Auerbach for deftly moving between fictional characters and real people to demonstrate the Victorians’ preoccupation with living their public lives as if they were acting on stage. Believes Auerbach’s study is a useful extension of earlier work by Lionel Trilling (Sincerity and Authenticity) and Jerome H. Buckley (The Victorian Temper).