Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good background reading for Victorian novels, 21 Mar 2005
This is a wonderful work of popular social history about the lives of Victorians. But, rather than the upper classes or the ruling elite, or the working classes, we are taken into the homes of the middle classes. Yes, this is costume drama territory. Flanders introduces us to the archetypal middle class house -- perhaps a prosperous five-storey villa in the city, or a humble terrace -- and she takes the reader on a guided tour of all the rooms in turn. We are told how the room was used by the household: what occurred there and when, how and why. How it was furnished, how often it was used etc. Then, far more interestingly Flanders digresses into wider related social aspects in each chapter. For example the chapter on the 'sickroom' -- usually a bedroom emptied of all furnishings to nurse a sick family member back to health -- becomes a discussion about Victorian healthcare, medicine, funerals, and mourning etiquette. (The Victorians had an unhealthy preoccupation with illness and a tendency towards hypochondria.)
Flanders makes wonderful use of primary sources such as memoirs, diaries, letters and journals to illustrate the points she is making and to give specific examples to bring situations and ideas to life (very evocative, quaint language). She also regularly cites contemporary novelists such as Dickens and Bronte (to name but two) that allows us an insight into the mind of a Victorian reader through their characters, whose situations, circumstances and opinions reveal an awful lot about prevailing thought of the period. Various 'pamphleteers' and authors of household management books (especially Mrs Beeton) also feature heavily, though usually to be derided by the author and the reader for their hopeless pomposity and self-righteous bluster.
Having read this, it's very difficult to admire or to respect Victorians very much as far as their private lives were concerned, and Flanders seems to concur with this and makes no attempt to disguise her contempt: generally (there are exceptions) they were pompous, self-righteous, patronising, snobbish and arrogant beyond belief, not to mention cruel to their servants. It is difficult or impossible to sympathise with any of the Victorians whose writings feature in this book. However this does allow for Flanders' pithy and acerbic notes at the bottom on the pages to add a little humour too. This is somewhat unusual for a history book and the author's style certainly ain't Adam Hart-Davis' gushing What The Victorians Did For Us. I'm just aching to read a Dickens now, or to watch a period drama. This really is a fascinating and entertaining read and written in an accessible prose and with some nice illustrations.
Just a few quibbles now. One thing I would add is that it seems to concentrate more on the lives of women and rather brushes over men a little. But this is to be expected in an exploration of the household. And Flanders does seem to repeat herself too often for my liking; there's repeating things for emphasis and then there's just repeating things. Lastly, it's also rather 'Londoncentric'. Now I don't mind this, thinking as I do that London is magnificent, but I'm aware that certain people object to this. But these are just trifling criticisms that don't detract from a real achievement. A splendid book.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I couldn't put this book down, 19 Sep 2005
By A Customer
I loved this book. I wouldn't normally read a non-fiction book from cover to cover, but I found this one addictive. It is quite specific in the ground it covers, centering very much on the domestic life of middle class women. The reference material is mainly contemporary fiction and advice books, which do perhaps give more of an indication of what people aspired to, rather than how they actually lived. However, the author does not pretend otherwise. We may not all follow the advice of TV programmes such as "How Clean is your house", but the fact that they are so popular does tell us something about our society. This book doesn't view the Victorians through rose tinted glasses, but why should it? If you want to know why your house has a front room, or how long you should wear black to mourn the death of your second cousin twice removed or are just feeling sorry for yourself because you have a big pile of ironing, then this is the book for you.
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46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Astonishing Depth, 4 Nov 2003
Although the fifty page intro was a bit sluggish, it fortunately did not represent the rest of the book. Flanders devotes a chapter to each room in the stereotypical Victorian house, plus one for The Street. Her research gives new meaning to the word "depth". She has mined non fiction, letters, fiction, and just about anything that could possibly add insight to life in that very rigid time. The result is a wealth of analysis, as well as wonderful trivia (People did not want newfangled toilets in their bathrooms because bathrooms were clean rooms!). From the weight of women's clothing (37 pounds) and the number of times they had to change clothes daily (6), to the ways households detected adulteration in their food (and there was good reason to), and the number of mail deliveries per day (10-12, and the postman always rapped twice), The Victorian House is a treasure trove of fascinating information. Unsurprisingly, since they spent so very much of their time at home, the book's real impact is in the trials and tribulations of women - children, mothers, servants - and how the Victorian house shaped and ruled them. It is sad, frightening, and crazy, all at once. The three sections of colour plates add visual evidence to Flanders' text, and the whole thing is a remarkably focused trip through this world. I have no reservations about recommending this book.
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