S4 E11: Governess, the Monster-Slayer:  Virginia Feito’s Victorian Psycho

Warning:  SPOILERS!  SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!!

After you have read VICTORIAN PSYCHO–a novel that made NPR's Books We Love 2025 List for “seriously good writing”--come back and listen to a lively run down of the historical background that Feito weaves into her narrative.  There’s so much of it that we can’t begin to cover it all in an hour! Feito brilliantly conjures the Victorian social landscape, and she does it all via the distinct voice of Winifred Notty, a ferociously bright, funny, and totally unhinged narrator.  But is Winifred any more unhinged than the world that she inhabits?  Indeed, could one argue that Winifred, this psychotic and goal-oriented governess, a product of the moral hypocrisies of an era that felt utterly sure of its own righteousness?

Along the way, Sonja and Vanessa enjoy a historic journey replete with chamber pots, tooth decay, arsenic fashion, animal fat hair products, and Christmas cards featuring dead birds and marching lobsters.  

REFERENCES:

To learn more about the author, head to her website, virginiafeito.com.

Check out art by James Ensor, the artist after whom Feito names the house in the novel. Doesn’t it hit the right mood?

Here is a link to the painting that features in Ensor House’s Dining Decor.

For a fun explanation of chamber pots and open drawers, check out Elsie Jean, The Well Dressed Historian's video on You Tube.

If you’d like to read more about preparing and eating the delicacy that is the ortelan bunting (the bird the book mentions a diner eating, bones and all), you should check out this informative and entertainingly-written Atlas Obscura Article that includes pics.  

Here is the interview in which Feito mentions her mother’s reaction to the first draft of the novel.

Here is just one of many articles on Victorian Christmas cards, and you can also just google samples of Vic Christmas cards and judge for yourself. 

This National Library of Medicine article cites statistics about how many deaths in 19th century Britain could be traced back to infectious diseases. 

Here is the link to The Molly Brown Museum page about deadly Victorian cosmetics and apparel, like arsenic green ballgowns.

For a taste of Victorian beauty advice, check out an excerpt from an 1870 Harper's Bazaar.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia page that quotes chapters from the Ugly Girl Papers.

Here is a link to read about the Victorian Corset Controversy that includes the letter to the editor quoted in this episode.