A wonderful collage book of victoriana

books:

	• Joy to the World: A Victorian Christmas Cynthia Hart, John Grossman Workman Publishing Company, 1990 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Almost Perfect but....

Pretty much the complete history of Christmas in a nutshell is lavishly illustrated here in this beautifully colorful (and I DO mean colorful) book. Of course, the concentration here is on the 19th century-pretty much the LATE 19th century. If you want to know how our great and great great grandparents may have celebrated this glorious holiday-and how they would have SEEN this holiday-it doesn't get any better. Now for my complaint-and it is a big one-although it is only one line in the book. I shall quote it here from page 21: "The creche as a symbol of the Christ Child's birth derived from the fictitious but touching story of an adolescent Mary, great with child, and her gentle middle aged husband Joseph." FICTITIOUS? I'm sorry but that is the basis, the beginning of the whole Christian faith. Without that 'fictitious' birth...well....this is not the place for preaching. The Catholics and Protestants (and many others, I'm sure) know, though. It did put a damper on the rest of the book for me, but I will stand by my review that for the pictures and the history, it truly is excellent. The authors just have to leave out their opinions when writing on a subject that, like it or not, is very religious in nature-and, believe me, a Christmas in Victorian times is\was truly religious. That's why it got a 4 instead of a 5.

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A wonderful collage book of victoriana

This was a great book. I collect antique post cards, so I love the photographic collages the author makes using post cards, die cuts, antiques, and real flowers. Most beautiful.

Text by Priscilla Dunhill. The Christmas we love today sprang from the festive parlors and bedecked halls of a century ago, where it lives still in the lush pages of Joy to the World. A specially embossed and die-cut jacket wraps the book like a precious gift.

Selection of the Literary Guild and the Better Homes & Gardens Family Book Service. 199,000 copies in print.

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