Filled with lively essays and a glossary of obscure terms, this unique reference--organized by subject--is a practical and entertaining compendium of information and insight on this time of debtor prisons, bedlam, and that wonderful disease of sense and sensibility, "putrid fever". Illustrations. From The Publisher: For every frustrated reader of the great nineteenth-century English novels of Austen, Trollope, Dickens, or the Brontes 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," here is a "delightful reader's companion that lights up the literary dark" "(The New York Times)." This fascinating, lively guide clarifies the sometimes bizarre maze of rules, regulations, and customs that governed everyday life in Victorian England. 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. |
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