How to Be a Victorian – A Dawn–to–Dusk Guide to Victorian Life - Hardcover

Goodman, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871404850 ISBN 13: 9780871404855

Publisher: Liveright, 2020

Synopsis

A delightful tour through the intimate details of life in Victorian England, told by a historian who has cheerfully endured them all.

About this title

Review

Exuberant, absorbing.--A. N. Wilson

A triumph.--Judith Flanders

Goodman's impeccably researched account will raise readers' eyebrows with her adventures "living history..". [Her] charming guide richly illustrates what daily life was like for common people undergoing the massive social changes of the time and succeeds in presenting "a more intimate, personal and physical sort of history."

Goodman skillfully creates a portrait of daily Victorian life with accessible, compelling, and deeply sensory prose... Compulsively readable.--Erin Entrada Kelly

If the past is a foreign country because they do things differently there, we're lucky to have such a knowledgeable cicerone as Ruth Goodman.... Goodman's fascination with the objects of the past doesn't lead her to fetishize or romanticize them. She is admirably matter-of-fact.... Revelatory.--Alexandra Kimball

[E]ntertaining... Goodman mixes historical context with technical know-how; in addition to explaining why women wore corsets she tries wearing--and even making--one herself... [T]he book's accumulation of detail on matters as diverse as purchasing a ticket for the new underground railway, administering an opium-based tonic to a baby, and signaling interest in a homosexual affair makes you feel as if you could pass as a native.

Goodman's research is impeccable, and she attacks the topic with gusto, taking the reader through an average day and presenting the oddities of life without condescension... Although the book lends itself to being read in segments, I read it straight through like a novel, panting to know what would happen next.--Patricia Hagen

[A] witty account of life during the monarch's reign... [Goodman's] interest in historical accuracy leads her to experiment with corsets and home cures. Research for the book led her 'down harrowing avenues of hunger, disease, overwork, and abuse.' Among the most upsetting are accounts of small children working harder than most adults do now, sometimes in dangerous and frightening environments, and on empty stomachs. Often a very funny read, the book takes seriously the suffering of these kids and their families.--Kate Tuttle

About the Author

Ruth Goodman is the author of How to Be a Victorian. An historian of British social and domestic life, she has presented a number of BBC television series, including Tudor Monastery Farm. She served as a historical advisor on the BBC's miniseries Wolf Hall. She lives in England.

Edition details

• Publisher: Liveright
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871404850
• ISBN 13: 9780871404855
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464