Consumptive chic : a history of beauty, fashion, and disease / Carolyn A. Day.
Author/creator |
Day, Carolyn A. author. |
Format | Book and Print |
Publication Info | London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017. |
Copyright Notice | ©2017 |
Description | x, 189 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm |
Subject(s) |
Click here for more information about this title
Portion of title | History of beauty, fashion, and disease |
Contents | The approach to illness -- The curious case of consumption : a family affair -- Exciting consumption : the causes and culture of an illness -- Morality, mortality, and romanticizing death -- The angel of death in the household -- Tragedy and tuberculosis : the Siddons story -- Dying to be beautiful : the consumptive chic -- The agony of conceit : clothing and consumption -- Epilogue: The end of consumptive chic -- Concluding the fashion. |
Abstract | "During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a tubercular moment in which perceptions of the disease consumption (tuberculosis) became inextricably tied to contemporary concepts of beauty, playing out in the clothing fashions of the day. With the ravages of the illness widely regarded as conferring beauty on the sufferer, it became commonplace to regard tuberculosis as a positive affliction, one to be emulated in both beauty practices and dress. While medical writers of the time believed that the fashionable way of life of many women actually rendered them susceptible to the disease, Carolyn A. Day investigates the deliberate and widespread flouting of admonitions against these fashion practices in the pursuit of beauty. Through an exploration of contemporary social trends and medical advice revealed in medical writing, literature and personal papers, Consumptive Chic uncovers the intimate relationship between fashionable women's clothing and medical understandings of the illness. Illustrated with over 40 full color fashion plates, caricatures, medical images, and photographs of original garments, this is a compelling story of the complex connections between the body, beauty, and disease --and the rise of tubercular chic"--Back cover. |
Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages [173]-181) and index. |
Genre/form | History. |
LCCN | 2017006493 |
ISBN | 9781350009370 (paperback) |
ISBN | 1350009377 (paperback) |
ISBN | 9781350009387 (hardback) |
ISBN | 1350009385 (hardback) |
ISBN | 9781350009400 (Epub) |
ISBN | 1350009407 (Epub) |
ISBN | 9781350009394 (Epdf) |
ISBN | 1350009393 (Epdf) |
Available Items
Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions | |
Joyner | General Stacks | RA644 .T7 D39 2017 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |