Material relations: Domestic interiors and middle-class families in England, 1850-1910 (Studies in Design and Material Culture) - Hardcover

Hamlett, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719078636 ISBN 13: 9780719078637

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Material relations tells the story of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century middle-class families by exploring the domestic spaces they inhabited and the material goods they prized. By opening the doors of the house, the book sheds new light on aspects of family life including love, marriage, sex, childhood and death. Historians have argued that as the nineteenth century waned, domestic spaces became increasingly private. Material relations challenges this, contending that domestic space created a complex series of family intimacies. Until the decline of domestic service after the First World War, the organization of the middle-class home forged a distinctive system of family relations. Relations between husband and wife were fashioned by drawing room politeness, and fastidious sexuality mediated in the marital bedroom. The nursery distanced parent and child, glamourising parents and sometimes embittering children. The allocation of rooms to servants reveals the construction of class relations on a face to face, everyday basis. The book also explores what happened when young people left home, and their relationship with domesticity. Finally the book turns to the impact of death on the home, considering the dismantling of the interior and the role of objects in memory making.T Drawing upon novels, advice manuals and magazines, alongside sources for everyday use such as diaries, autobiographies, sale catalogues and inventories, wills and photographs, this fascinating book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of Modern history, English literature, cultural studies, social geography, history of art and history of design.

About this title

Review

Hamlett has uncovered the complexities of domestic relationships over the life cycle and, in so doing, has offered a more three-dimensional vision of lived experiences in the past., Sandra Trudgen Dawson, Northern Illinois University, Journal of British Studies, 1 April 2012-This is an interesting, worthwhile book which brings together a mass of recent research: it is robustly interdisciplinary in its approach while raising a series of important historical questions about our understanding of Victorian home life., Carol Dyhouse, University of Sussex, 1 June 2012

About the Author

Jane Hamlett is Lecturer in Modern British History at Royal Holloway University of London

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0719078636
• ISBN 13: 9780719078637
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264