Horror Victorianorum (terror of the Victorian), coined by the philosopher

David Stove David Charles Stove (15 September 1927 – 2 June 1994) was an Australian philosopher. Philosophy His work in philosophy of science included criticisms of David Hume's Inductive scepticism. He offered a positive response to the problem of ...

, is an extreme distaste or condemnation of Victorian culture, art and design. The term was used in Stove's book '' The Plato Cult'' as part of his argument against Karl Popper and other philosophers whom he characterised as "

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

s". For Stove, Popper was influenced by the pervasive anti-Victorian mentality of the era, epitomised by

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

's book ''

A Handful of Dust ''A Handful of Dust'' is a novel by the British writer Evelyn Waugh. First published in 1934, it is often grouped with the author's early, satirical comic novels for which he became famous in the pre– World War II years. Commentators have, ...

'', in which the absurdity of Victorian values is expressed by a parody of "Victorian" conceptions of the civilizing mission of imperialism, when the hero is finally trapped in the Amazonian jungle, forced eternally to read the works of

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

to a

tribal chief A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized a ...

. For Stove, the ascription of absurdity to Victorian culture was essentially a matter of

taste The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste (flavor). Taste is the perception produced or stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor ...

, but one so powerful and irrational that it possessed the intensity of religious faith. As a result, it produced a revulsion – rather than a reasoned scepticism – to writers such as the Victorian philosopher of science

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved ...

. Following Stove's usage, the term was taken up by the design historian Shelagh Wilson to refer to modernist distaste for

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...

and design. Wilson argued that "Palissyite" design, influenced by the methods of

Bernard Palissy Bernard Palissy (c. 1510c. 1589) was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain. He is best known for his so-called "rusticware", typically highly decor ...

, had been ridiculed and misunderstood by proponents of "Puginite" design, following the proto-modernist principles of

Augustus Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

. Wilson's argument formed part of a reaffirmation of the aesthetic principles of the

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

. The argument that distaste for Victorian cultural values (' Anti-victorianism') is irrational has been adopted by other writers,either following Stove's politically conservative attack on liberal thought, or Wilson's critique of modernism.

Notes

Roger Kimball, ''Art Without Beauty'', 1997

Literature

*Stove, D., ''The Plato Cult and other Philosophical follies'', Blackwell, 1991 *Wilson, S., "Monsters and monstrosities: grotesque taste and Victorian design", in Trodd, Colin, et al. (eds.), ''Victorian Culture and the Idea of the Grotesque'', Ashgate, 1999

Notes

Literature

See also