What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England

ISBN-13: 9780671882365 / Angielski / Miękka / 1994 / 416 str.

Daniel Pool

Opis

A "delightful reader's companion" (The New York Times) to the great nineteenth-century British novels of Austen, Dickens, Trollope, the Brontes, and more, this lively guide clarifies the sometimes bizarre maze of rules and customs that governed life in Victorian England.

For anyone who has ever wondered whether a duke outranked an earl, when to yell "Tally Ho " at a fox hunt, or how one landed in "debtor's prison," this book serves as an indispensable historical and literary resource. Author Daniel Pool provides countless intriguing details (did you know that the "plums" in Christmas plum pudding were actually raisins?) on the Church of England, sex, Parliament, dinner parties, country house visiting, and a host of other aspects of nineteenth-century English life--both "upstairs" and "downstairs.

An illuminating glossary gives at a glance the meaning and significance of terms ranging from "ague" to "wainscoting," the specifics of the currency system, and a lively host of other details and curiosities of the day.

Recenzje

"A delightful book ... indispensable to lovers of Victorian literature." (M.G. Lord New York Newsday)

Spis treści

Contents

Introduction

Part One

The Basics

Currency

The Calendar

Hogsheads and Drams: English Measurement

England

London

The Public World

Precedence: Of Bishops, Barristers, and Baronets

The Titled

How to Address Your Betters

Esq., Gent., K.C.B., etc.

Status: Gentlemen and Lesser Folk

Society

Society and "The Season"

Basic Etiquette

How to Address the Nontitled

"May I Have This Dance?"

The Rules of Whist and Other Card Games

Calling Cards and Calls

The Major Rituals

Presentation at Court

The Dinner Party

The Ball

The Country House Visit

Money

Being Wealthy

Entail and Protecting the Estate

Bankruptcy, Debt, and Moneylending

Power and the Establishment

The Government

Britannia Rules the Waves

The Army

The Church of England

Oxford and Cambridge

Schools

"The Law Is a Ass"

Lawyers

Crime and Punishment

Transition

The Horse

Please, James, the Coach

The Railroad

The Mail

The Country

Life on the Farm

The Midlands, Wessex, and Yorkshire

Who's Who in the Country

Shire and Shire Alike: Local Government in Britain

"The Theory and System of Fox Hunting"

Vermin, Poachers, and Keepers

Fairs and Markets

The Private World

"Reader, I Married Him"

Sex

An Englishman's Home

Houses with Names

Furniture

Lighting

How the English Kept Clean

"Please, Sir, I Want Some More."

Pudding!

Tea

Drink and the Evils Thereof

Women's Clothing

Men's Clothing

Servants

The Governess

A Taxonomy of Maids

Victorian Recycling

The Grim World

The Orphan

Occupations

Apprentices

The Workhouse

Disease

Doctors

Death and Other Grave Matters

Part Two

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

O autorze

Daniel Pool received a doctorate in political science from Brandeis University and a law degree from Columbia University. He lives in New York City.