inside the victorian home by judith flanders

I wanted it to be useful and a wonderful reference for writing about the Victorian era. This is one to own, and dip into at leisure, if you’re at all fond of, or intrigued by, the Victorians. While Flanders’ story flows like the proverbial cultural river, it is also respectably hefty with footnotes and bibliography, providing solid basis for her pronouncements, as well as fodder for further reading. Both Charles Darwin and Florence Nightingale emerge as very unusual case studies, in situ. A number of very interesting Victorians are presented, along with their interesting neuroses and illnesses. What makes this particularly appealing to me is that examples are pulled from the books and lives of writers, so it’s great fun to revisit many of one’s favourite fictional characters, and to study them under the microscope of socio-cultural history or to meet Henry James at his own table, for instance, or writing desk, and to peek in on his life as he goes about this business of writing. it’s all covered, within the whole range of the alphabet.

about table manners, and kitchen practices about food preparation and laundry days about social functions and bodily functions. Like Lou Rawls, you would have to get fully dressed before going to bed, if you didn't want to suffer frostbite in the night.įlanders is enchanting as a tour guide, revealing all the minutiae one longs to know. Despite the charm inherent in having a little visit with Dickens and Eliot, with Emily and Charlotte, with Browning and Tennyson, there is no charm at all in suffering from chilblains in cold and drafty houses. This is the sort of delightful trivia you will find in this very engaging book - a cultural dalliance within a very rustic era. Your smalls, by the way, would have been white if you were a real lady, because only women of loose morals would have worn colourful underclothes. of (mostly) middle class Victorians, this book will satisfy every curiosity, right down to the smalls. and drawing rooms, and washrooms, and kitchens. If you’re in the mood to spend a little time in the bedrooms.

Inside the victorian home by judith flanders