Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England
"[Flanders] knows what we want to know and is thoroughly engaging, undidactic company."--Katherine A. Powers, Boston Sunday GlobeNineteenth-century Britain was then the world's most prosperous nation, yet Victorians would bury meat in earth and wring sheets out in boiling water with their bare...
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"[Flanders] knows what we want to know and is thoroughly engaging, undidactic company."--Katherine A. Powers, Boston Sunday GlobeNineteenth-century Britain was then the world's most prosperous nation, yet Victorians would bury meat in earth and wring sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. Such drudgery was routine for the parents of people still living, but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Following the daily life of a middle-class Victorian house from room to room; from childbirth in the master bedroom through the kitchen, scullery, dining room, and parlor, all the way to the sickroom; Judith Flanders draws on diaries, advice books, and other sources to resurrect an age so close in time yet so alien to our own. 100 illustrations, 32 pages of color.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780393327632 (0393327639)
ASIN: 393327639
Publish date: November 17th 2005
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pages no: 499
Edition language: English
This is an engaging and informative survey of daily and home life for the middle classes in Victorian England. It is organized by rooms of the house, but the author uses each room as a segue to discuss various aspects of Victorian life: the nursery leads us to childrearing and the education of girls...
Lots of great historical information.
Ever wonder how the Victorians actually lived? This book uses the house plan as a method to show how life was lived in each room. Fascinating so far, and I've only gotten about 25 pages in!***************************************I cannot overemphasize what an enjoyable book this was to read. The ...
This fascinating description of the Victorian home is just the kind of book I love, filled with detail about ordinary people's lives during the nineteenth century. Bill Bryson referenced it in his excellent At Home, and I'm glad I was able to find a copy at my local library. Although, I must say, as...
What a great read! I was a little worried when i picked it up at the library and it was huge. It looked menacingly like a textbook and I thought, "Oh no, it's going to be dry and have piles of footnotes, or worse, endnotes." But it turned out to be an fascinating page-turner. Even the footnotes were...