The studio studied

The reader is beckoned into this enjoyable ‘browser’ by the front cover's promise of ‘Unique Portraits of the Makers of the High Victorian Age’. Of necessity, one pauses before joining such august company, for it could be either the vaunted haughtiness of the High Victorians or their scandalous naughtiness which awaits us within. Scented and contradictory phrases at once come tumbling to mind, all redolent of nobility and floridity, banality and carnality. With the ghost of W. S. Gilbert babbling away in our ears, we attempt a business-like inspection of those whom we recall were not only haughty and naughty, but pompously business-like as well

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