A Very Queer Family Indeed: Sex, Religion, and the Bensons in Victorian Britain

Description

“We can begin with a kiss, though this will not turn out to be a love story, at least not a love story of anything like the usual kind.” So begins A Very Queer Family Indeed, which introduces us to the extraordinary Benson family. Edward White Benson became Archbishop of Canterbury at the height of Queen Victoria’s reign, while his wife, Mary, was renowned for her wit and charm—the prime minister once wondered whether she was “the cleverest woman in England or in Europe.” The couple’s six precocious children included E. F. Benson, celebrated creator of the Mapp and Lucia novels, and Margaret Benson, the first published female Egyptologist. What interests Simon Goldhill most, however, is what went on behind the scenes, which was even more unusual than anyone could imagine. Inveterate writers, the Benson family spun out novels, essays, and thousands of letters that open stunning new perspectives—including what it might mean for an adult to kiss and propose marriage to a twelve-year-old girl, how religion in a family could support or destroy relationships, or how the death of a child could be celebrated. No other family has left such detailed records about their most intimate moments, and in these remarkable accounts, we see how family life and a family’s understanding of itself took shape during a time when psychoanalysis, scientific and historical challenges to religion, and new ways of thinking about society were developing. This is the story of the Bensons, but it is also more than that—it is the story of how society transitioned from the high Victorian period into modernity. Contents......Page 6 Part I: The Family That Wrote Itself......Page 8 1. Sensation!......Page 10 2. Wooing Mother......Page 28 3. Bringing Up the Subject......Page 44 4. Fifty Ways to Say I Hate My Father......Page 58 5. Tell the Truth, My Boy......Page 74 6. A Map of Biographical Urges......Page 84 7. To Write a Life......Page 100 8. Women in Love......Page 118 9. Graphomania......Page 124 Part II: Being Queer......Page 128 10. What’s in a Name?......Page 130 11. Though Wholly Pure and Good......Page 142 12. He Never Married......Page 158 13. All London Is Agog......Page 176 14. Carnal Affections......Page 194 15. Be a Man, My Boy......Page 206 16. “It’s Not Unusual . . .”......Page 218 Part III: The God of Our Fathers......Page 224 17. It Will Be Worth Dying......Page 226 18. The Deeper Self That Can’t Decide......Page 232 19. Our Father......Page 238 20. Secret History......Page 250 21. Writing the History of the Church......Page 256 22. Building History......Page 268 23. Forms of Worship......Page 278 24. Capturing the Bensons......Page 292 Part IV: Not I . . .......Page 296 25. Not I . . .......Page 298 Bibliography and Notes......Page 308 Acknowledgments......Page 344