Ruth Goodman, British freelance historian, gives an in-depth look at what you could expect out of the daily life in Victorian England. A really in-depth look at the life, well researched, and in some cases hands-on. As the title says, she takes you from the moment you would wake up in the morning to the moment you’d close your eyes at night. From morning toilette to evening delight, she covers what you’d wear, what you’d eat, how you’d earn a living, what chores would entail. From education, to leisure, to marital relations, it’s all there and giving in informative yet not dry language.
Ruth Goodman is the author/presenter of several books/tv series on farming life in England during various times in history (e.g. Tudor, Victorian, Wartime), where she has lived, dressed, and ate as people would during those periods, working with the tools and techniques used then. She has made her own cosmetics and toiletries, cleared farmland, and following Tudor bathing mores, not washed her hair with anything other than water for three months and discovered you don’t wind up as smelly as you would think. So when I say hands on, I mean hands on.
This is a really good overview book on the average Victorian’s life, from the working class up to the upper middle (Royals need not apply). Going that wide of a net does cause her to gloss over some things; it is a book for the average enjoyment, not the scholarly bent. And it was weird reading a book about Victorian England and having Jack the Ripper being written off in a single sentence in the “sex lives” chapter. He threw London into a tizzy for a while, and barely a blip? Not that Oscar Wilde got a longer shrift in the subsection on homosexuality; apparently Ruth Goodman and I disagree on how much some people made changes in society. I did also find it interesting that the Irish Potato famine was somehow both integral to the chapter on breakfast, and somehow glossed over. Like let’s completely ignore Victoria’s hand in why the British really didn’t give that much money to assist Ireland, not just that the British thought the Irish were lazy, and had disagreements over religion. Which come to think of it, she did pretty much gloss over religion entirely. She does also dive into the rampant classism and sexism inherent in the period, going into detail over how easier life was for men from childhood onward. The traveling womb; anatomically disproved by Victorians, and yet the societal strings that go along with it still tying women up all the same.
I will take off points for the fact that the inserts are black and white instead of the color they’re supposed to, though I think having done research that is the price I paid for buying the US edition instead of the UK or Canadian.
Read this if you have Bernadette Banner’s Youtube videos on your “must watch” list.
