It is impossible to refute the significance of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations in Hyde Park, London. The ephemeral exposition held in 1851 was, to be blunt, a culturally defining experience, a moment midway through a century of much cultural movement when Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace bewildered the public due to its gargantuan size, and the event inside Paxton's citadel of iron and glass captured a nation's acuity of progress, modernity, and self-importance (1). The Great Exhibition, as it became known, a grand expression of the potential of wealth and empire as presented by technological advancement and an occasion used by the British to immerse themselves in cognizant greatness (41), is also recognized for establishing a new national cultural equilibrium centered between the old and the new, the human and the machine. In short the Great Exhibition has been widely appreciated as providing a keyhole to survey the nuances of the Victorian age, British self-perception at that time, and the process of societal modernization. From such a milieu James Buzard, Joseph Childers, and Eileen Gillooly offer Victorian Prism: Refractions of the Crystal Palace, a comprehensive body of literature that illustrates societal enlightenment and articulately describes the vision of Victorian culture and society as put forth by the organizers of the 1851 exposition.

In Victorian Prism a new appraisal of the multiplicity of meanings with regard to the staging of the Great Exhibition and its connotations to the evolution of British society is given. Importantly, the meanings and developments noted are not merely outlined but are lucidly discussed, elucidated, and clarified. Split into five principal parts, “Exhibitionary Aims and Anxieties,” “Exhibition Viewing,” “Exhibiting Publics,” “Others on Exhibit,” and “Afterlives,” each offering a variety of perspectives as to the experience, significance, and influence of the Great Exhibition (8), Victorian Prism takes a broad stance that consciously leans upon elements of, for example, culture, politics, aesthetics, epistemology, and technology. To achieve the ambitious goal of investigating the immediate effect, social implications, and the legacy of the Great Exhibition, Buzard, Childers, and Gillooly bring together a number of scholars from the genres of literature, social history, and cultural studies in order not only to unravel the complexities of Victorian society but, significantly, to weave the event into the context of Victorian taste, attitudes, and social ethos. Noting the magnitude of the exhibition through focusing not only upon mid-Victorian England, Buzard et al. also adroitly entwine it with later exhibitions in London, including the Millennium Dome at the turn of the twenty-first century (270–90) and events elsewhere. Accordingly, noteworthy historic exhibitions such as the National Exhibition in Caracas, Venezuela (1883); the Palestine Exhibition (1891–1950s) in London, said by Eitan Bar-Yosef in the chapter “Jerusalem, My Happy Home” to be “an ideal site to explore the domestication of the imperial landscape” (187); and the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 are weighed up. Although much of the geographical focus centers upon London, the issues raised by Victorian Prism extend beyond the metropolis's spatial borders, and in this regard anyone interested in the cultural significance of fairs and exhibitions in the framework of the shaping of the modern world in the nineteenth century and the unfolding cultural dynamics apparent in British society shall find the book of interest.

Although much has been written since 1851 about the Great Exhibition and consequently it would be appropriate to query what Victorian Prism offers to existing scholarly discourse, it is worthy to note the attitude and depth of the tome. By way of example, Victorian Prism is explicit in its presentation of critical analysis and the allegorical infrastructure of historical meaning (36) in order to determine the effect of the event upon various sectors of British and imperial society. In addition, it should be realized that Victorian Prism is abundant in its detailing and prolific in its use of primary sources so that, to follow up on prior statements, an accurate evaluation of the true impact of the Great Exhibition is proffered and a definition is constructed of the alliance between British society and its aspirations, the event's organizers, the spectators, and the artifacts displayed. But this in itself does not strictly make clear as to why Victorian Prism should be lauded? Therefore, to reiterate, it should be acknowledged as not only being a rich document but one that also provides much needed scrutiny beyond the standard historiography of inflated British esteem, Paxton's greenhouse architecture, and grand accounts of Prince Albert's triumphant ingress into the British establishment. As a case in point, Rachel Teukolsky's chapter, “This Sublime Museum,” and John R. Davis's work on “The Great Exhibition and Modernization” each grant longed-for critical inquiries into mid-Victorian narratives of aesthetic value and spectatorship (84–100) and the means by which the exposition participated in Britain's process of transformation and renewal (233–49). As Davis asserts, “The Exhibition not only opened the way for industrial growth but it also created a new, powerful alliance of interests in support of modernization” (234–35).

Despite some of the chapters within Victorian Prism being perhaps too short, for example, Peter Gurney's “A Palace for the People” and Joseph Childers's “Peering Back” being a mere twelve and thirteen pages, respectively (with endnotes), and overall somewhat stark of illustrations, Victorian Prism nonetheless is a beguiling read. Loaded with data and copious in its standpoints, Victorian Prism is a successful endeavor by its authors to judiciously reassess the impact and bequest of the Great Exhibition. Offering a new lens to see the Great Exhibition, Victorian Prism what's more provides a coherent platform to cogitate the variety of meanings that the evanescent exposition manufactured, meanings that profoundly affected the Victorians and still resonate today in British society.