Youth of Darkest England: Working-Class Children at the Heart of Victorian Empire Book

I have mixed feeling about this book. I wasn't expecting such an academic presentation, and was slightly put off by the dry, verbose language.

I did find many interesting snippets sandwiched between the redundant, long-winded prose. I especially liked how Frantzen presented and analyzed the Church doctrine and penetential laws of both heterosexual and homosexual "sins." Some of his views I found a little too complicated and more elaborate than necessary...but there were some areas that I found eye-opening.

I feel that this is a good book for those who have a strong history in gender/sexual/queer studies AND have a good background in Midieval, Anglo-Saxon literature. In other words...I feel this is not a book for novice readers interested in queer theory in literature.