Pearsall exposes, often in the words of the victims themselves, the cruelty of  Victorian England. Beneath a glossy surface, he finds women treated as possessions and worse. He shows how the poor suffered in workhouses, the mentally ill in madhouses, the poor treatment at the hands of the church, pain inflicted in schools, workers in the "dark satanic mills," victims of the retributive justice system, and more. Most poignant is the plight of Victorian children. The lesson for our times is that ignoring pain only creates a festering wound that leads to society's self-destruction. Very good condition in mylar cover. David McKay Company, Inc., New York. 1975. USED. $25.00