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Stephen Fry's Victorian Secrets

By: Stephen Fry, John Woolf, Nick Baker
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

  • Summary

  • On the surface, the Victorian age is one of propriety, industry, prudishness and piety. But scratch the surface and you'll find scandal, sadism, sex, madness, malice and murder.

    Presented by Stephen Fry, this series delves deep into a period of time we think we know, to discover an altogether darker reality. The stories we're told offer a different perspective on an era which underwent massive social change. As education, trade, technology and culture blossomed, why was there an undercurrent of the "˜forbidden' festering beneath Victorian society?

    Across 12 episodes, Stephen presents a series of true accounts of the dangerous low life and debauched high life of Victorian Britain.

    This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 12 episodes to your Library now.
    ©2018 Audible, Ltd. (P)2018 Audible, Ltd.
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Episodes
  • Ep. 1: Family Secrets

    Ep. 1: Family Secrets
    Oct 18 2018

    Of course, all families, high born and low have secrets. Confidential conditions of mind or body. Black sheep. Skeletons in cupboards. Unmentionable uncles. Naughty nephews... aunties who aren't... conventional. More often than not it boils down to something - sexual.

    This episode is about the keeping and uncovering of family secrets. In a way it unlocks all the secrets in all our episodes.

    Many Victorians, especially the more successful ones, feared shame. In a way this fear was something quite new. A new and growing newspaper industry was keen to amplify that shame. And a new middle class, desperate to cling to its new-found monied status, felt threatened. And, new theories about heredity, coming later in the century, meant that (perish the thought!) shamefulness could be passed on – like red hair or big feet - from generation to generation.
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    44 mins
    Free with 30-day trial
  • Ep. 2: The Buckingham Palace Freak Show

    Ep. 2: The Buckingham Palace Freak Show
    Oct 18 2018

    Step right up, step right up and don’t be shy - welcome to Victorian Secrets, and the secrets of... The Freak Show. The secrets of enormously fat men and bearded ladies, the secrets of exotic women with enticingly large buttocks, the secrets of Siamese Twins and dwarf families and, in particular, the secrets of our own, our very own Aztec Children, seen by half a million people on the European continent before they publicly revealed their own, personal, extraordinary secret.

    We’ll go backstage to hear the terrible secrets of the freaks themselves, we’ll lift the lace curtains of Buckingham Palace, where our own Queen, god bless her, took tea with the tiny, the towering and the terribly formed.
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    37 mins
    Free with 30-day trial
  • Ep. 3: Pornography, Pleasure and the Press

    Ep. 3: Pornography, Pleasure and the Press
    Oct 18 2018

    This episode will penetrate some of the secrets of Victorian sexuality, public and private and will challenge some deeply held misconceptions.

    We tend to think of the Victorians as dyed in the wool prudes, and we have latched onto the idea that the Victorians felt their values of self-discipline, temperance and hard work were threatened by the temptations of the flesh. This episode will show in enjoyable detail that ordinary Victorians’ attitudes to sex was for the most part enthusiastic, unembarrassed and surprisingly well informed. Apart, that is, from one secret sexual practice that was loathed, feared and tragically misunderstood.
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    34 mins
    Free with 30-day trial
Great Britain
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What listeners say about Stephen Fry's Victorian Secrets

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

Very interesting

Loved listening to such interesting and never heard of facts about the people and, somewhat, strange events in the Victorian era. As always, it's fantastic to listen to Stephen Fry's amazing voice.

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3 people found this helpful

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Profile Image for Dazzlingdiamonde

Very interesting telling of historical occurance.

Love Stephen Fry's narration plus the other narrators included. Also nice to hear from historians and have facts represented.

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Profile Image for Adrian Addicott

fantastic

I really enjoy the stories but audable isn't the best pod cast format I dosent continue on to the next episode.

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

excellent

The whole series is fantastic. It should be mase into a video series post has haste.

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Profile Image for Nicole C. Lopes

So interesting!

I binge listened to the whole thing in one go. Really enjoyed all of it!

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

Interesting and Informative

I found the stories to be intriguing and insightful. The reading and the acting creating a wealth of narrative to tantalise the imagination.

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

Excellent

I all most felt as though I was watching a documentary loved it
Highly recommend it

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Profile Image for Sharon Bianchini

Best car audiobook ever

This book is interesting and entertaining no matter who you are. Every story is fascinating, every episode interesting. This audiobook made my commutes to work enjoyable and I look forward to and hope there will be another in the same vein released soon

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Good

Good story to hear and the narrator shows hoe the story goes in good spirit

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good

I think the story was good I really like this I really love it thanks

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.