There were two standout stories in this collection.

Phosphorus:. The fantasy element in this story plays a cameo role; it is 99% reality of the most depressing kind. Someday I am going to piss on Queen Victoria's grave......read the story to find out why!

For the Briar Rose:. I do not weep easily over literature, but this story turned on the waterworks. All women are someone's daughters and many of us have been blessed with daughters of our own. This story isn't sad, but sentimental and sweet, addressing family, love, and the insidious passage of time. Being a huge fan of William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite painters, I was thrilled to meet them as characters in this story. Five stars for this one! ( )

Great collection of evocative and wide-ranging stories though they all hew well within the scope of a magical Victorian Age. My favorite of the stories remains the titular (and opening) story of the collection, though your mileage may vary. ( )

I received this anthology at World Fantasy Con in 2014 and had it signed by editor Ellen Datlow. Though this was one of my favorite acquisitions there, it ended up buried in my to-read pile. What a shame, because wow, this book is a treasure. Not only does it capture the essence of gaslamp fantasy by showing the diversity of the subgenre, but the stories are GOOD. I had two stories that I didn't really connect with, but the others were above-average and full of wow. My absolute favorites wee "The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear, "Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber, "Phosphorous" by Veronica Schanoes (which made me teary-eyed at the end). ( )

There's a lot of variety to the stories here, and while many of the stories didn't make any particular impression on me, the collection as a whole offered an impressive spread of what can amount to gaslamp literature, and the writing was consistently lovely, if not always so engaging as I might have preferred. The array of authors does offer a great opportunity for readers to discover new writers, and I imagine that any fantasy-reading reader will find at least a few authors whose other pieces they'll want to search out--I certainly did.

So although this collection as a whole didn't make a great impression on me, there were some gems here that I just fell in love with, and I'm glad to have read the collection. My favorites included: "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" by Delia Sherman (title story), "The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear, "The Unwanted Women of Surrey" by Kaaron Warren, "Charged" by Leanna Renee Hieber, "Phosphorous" by Veronica Schanoes, and "The Vital Importance of the Superficial" by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer. ( )

“From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire)” by Genevieve Valentine:
5/5. I loved it. A story told through documents and letters, it was tantalizing and mysterious but also satisfying.
“Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells” by Delia Sherman:
5/5. I loved it. A modern-day scholar re-analyzes the diaries of Victoria, with magic. I got the cold chills when I finished.
“For the Briar Rose” by Elizabeth Wein:
4/5. The protagonist's father is working on a series of paintings about Sleeping Beauty, while the protagonist herself is waiting for her life to start. A little confusing, but I liked it.
“The Governess” by Elizabeth Bear:
3/5. VERY DARK, BEAR, WHY YOU DO THIS TO ME ALWAYS. It was also depressingly unoriginal. BUT I STILL LOVE YOU BEAR. 3/5.
“The Unwanted Women of Surrey” by Kaaron Warren: 4/5. REALLY FREAKY. And chilling. It follows the shenanigans of a bunch of wives locked up for “mental illness.”
“Charged” by Leanna Renee Hieber: 4/5. Overwritten (almost purple prose), but still a nice little backstory for a character who can control electricity. Fits into this anthology very well.
“We Without Us Were Shadows” by Catherynne M. Valente: 4/5. At first I was all, “Ugh Bronte fanfiction” but then it was breaking all the walls between history and story and reality and daydreams and it was FABULOUS.
“The Vital Importance of the Superficial” by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer: 5/5. An epistolary tale, with lots of magic, propriety, and putting together of tiny clues to make a story. LOVED IT.
“The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown” by Jane Yolen: 3/5. This was like Victoria/Disraeli fanfiction except Victoria is idiotic and, I don’t know, the story was just meh.
“Their Monstrous Minds” by Tanith Lee: 3/5. In the same story vein as Frankenstein, this was fairly preachy and unoriginal, with characters I didn’t even like.

DNFs (I'm a bad anthology reader so there's always a few of these):
“The Fairy Enterprise” by Jeffrey Ford
“The Memory Book” by Maureen McHugh
“La Reine D’Enfer” by Kathe Koja
“Smithfield” by James P. Blaylock
“Mr. Splitfoot” by Dale Bailey
“Phosphorus” by Veronica Schanoes
“A Few Twigs He Left Behind” by Gregory Maguire
“Estella Saves the Village” by Theodora Goss ( )