How To Be A Victorian: A Dawn-To-Dusk Guide To Victorian Life
by Ruth Goodman
Buy on AmazonDrawing on her own adventures living in re-created Victorian conditions, Goodman serves as our bustling and fanciful guide to nineteenth-century life. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, she celebrates the ordinary lives of the most perennially fascinating era of British history. From waking up to the rapping of a "knocker-upper man" on the window pane to lacing into a corset after a round of calisthenics, from slipping opium to the little ones to finally retiring to the bedroom for the ideal combination of "love, consideration, control and pleasure," the weird, wonderful, and somewhat gruesome intricacies of Victorian life are vividly rendered.
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"You’ll never look at a period piece the same way again. Ruth Goodman, a historian who lives her studies, takes the “Dawn to Dusk” approach seriously. Her re-creation of Victorian life begins with stepping out of bed — a vastly different experience depending on your social class — and spreads out into an immersive explanation of social history, whether buying a train ticket or dressing for dinner. Ably encompassing a wide range of class experiences across decades of unimaginably swift social and economic change, Goodman’s book is the cheapest time-travel machine you’ll find this year."
NPR Books We Love — 2014 · apps.npr.org