Christine Bolus-Reichert. The Age of Eclecticism: Literature and Culture in Britain, 1815-1885. Columbus: The Ohio State UP, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-8142-1103-8. Price: US$44.95

Christine Bolus-Reichert’s ambitious book opens by noting that in mid-nineteenth-century Britain, to be eclectic carried negative associations of dilettantism, mediocrity and, often, bourgeois misunderstandings of aesthetics and good taste. And yet, she argues, despite wide-spread condemnation of eclecticism, it provided the conceptual framework for some of the age’s greatest writers and thinkers about what it meant to be Victorian and to produce—or be unable to produce—uniquely Victorian arts and ideas. In order to explore this interesting paradox, the first difficulty Bolus-Reichert faces is defining eclecticism, a shifting term with varying implications. Indeed, one sign of the slipperiness of the concept is that Bolus-Reichert offers evolving definitions throughout the first half of her book in a series of chapters that, while clearly reflecting the multiple influences on the idea of eclecticism, may nonetheless be somewhat confusing for a reader. Perhaps her best and briefest definition of eclecticism’s appeal comes in the book’s Afterward: “The eclecticism of the nineteenth century was, in large part, an answer to the dilemma of style—in what style should we build, paint, write?—but it was also a deliberate, philosophical turn of mind—balm on the deep wound of unbelief” (248). Eventually, one comes to understand that the notion of an eclectic age was typically used derogatorily to identify a time with no clear artistic or ideological center, one in which there was no predominant aesthetic style, no singular philosophy underpinning people’s perspective. In this regard, the British Victorian period may certainly be called eclectic, and Bolus-Reichert makes clear that this lack of a strong aesthetic and ideological center was often taken to signify a lack of moral center as well. By contrast, an eclectic approach, as Bolus-Reichert explores in detail, might be either naïve or sophisticated, negatively or positively freighted. Naïve eclecticism is typically the province of the nouveau riche or dilettantes and involves the haphazard gathering together of objects, ideas, and/or styles that seem appealing without any regard for whether or how they work together, often privileging fashion over discerning assessment of value. Conversely, sophisticated eclecticism is purposeful in its choices, carefully selecting the best of the available options, bringing elements together not only for their individual merits but also for how they harmonize to create a whole greater than their parts. Though Bolus-Reichert does not explicitly say so, Victorians might have distinguished between naïve and purposeful eclecticism as a matter of taste, which was generally taken to be the natural manifestation of one’s class position. However, because eclecticism was not simply a marker of class (plenty of respectable people eschewed an eclectic sensibility or approach), the value of Bolus-Reichert’s work for its thorough attention to the ideological underpinnings of eclectic choices becomes patently clear. In the main, sophisticated eclecticism required engagement with history. A purposeful eclectic typically presumes genius is not born but made; thus, history becomes a valuable teacher from whom one can learn much about technique, form, aesthetics or the development of ideas. Whether the milieu is philosophy, painting, literature, architecture, or religion, a purposeful eclectic carefully studies the past, adopts its best bits, and combines them into a model that suits the needs of the current age. Such eclectics argue that mastering the greatness of the past is the only path to becoming great in oneself. But critics claimed that such eclecticism produced little more than copying. The accusation of a lack of authenticity was compounded by tension over whether it is ever possible for a multiplicity of styles or aesthetic ideas to work successfully together. Due to the layered complexity of defining eclecticism, Part I of Bolus-Reichert’s two-part book is …