It’s one of the most enduring images of the 19th century: a Victorian lady, corseted and coiffed, collapsed on a fainting couch. The idea appears repeatedly in literature and period dramas, and has become a kind of shorthand for the female condition during Queen Victoria’s reign. But did women of the era really swoon so easily and so frequently? There are certainly many reasons to believe fainting was common; life in Victorian England wasn’t always the most sanitary or healthy, and women’s clothing was often elaborate and restrictive. But while these factors explain occasional collapses, ...Read More