Book Peter Gay. After an introduction and fundamentals, he covers the drives and defense mechanisms of the Victorian Era: eroticism, aggression and fear. The author then descends into the Victorian spirit: religion, labor, taste and privacy.

Especially in the privacy chapter, we see the contours of modern man emerging. Houses became larger and private rooms became available for more people. The days when an entire family lived and slept in one room were passé. Going forward, much of man’s life was to take place in self-selected seclusion.