England's Lost Eden : The Quest for a Victorian Utopia Book

This is a strange book. Before I read it, I couldn't figure out from the blurb what it was about, and I can't figure out what it is about now that I have read it. There is a background of Victorian unease; of wondering about God in an age of Darwin. There is a great deal about Mary Ann Girling, a charismatic Suffolk priestess who considered herself the new Messiah, and founded a cult. There is much detail the curious household of William Cowper and his hangers on, and a look at the lives of many well known Victorians who had odd lives, such as Ruskin.

As I read, I struggled to find the theme, the signposts - the notion of where the book was going. I drowned in a mass of detail.