Ruth Goodman is the author of How to Be a Victorian. An historian of British social and domestic life, she has presented a number of BBC television series, including Tudor Monastery Farm. She lives in England.
"Delightful."
*Seattle Times*
"Exuberant, absorbing."
*A. N. Wilson*
"Goodman’s impeccably researched account will raise readers’
eyebrows with her adventures “living history”… [Her] charming guide
richly illustrates what daily life was like for common people
undergoing the massive social changes of the time and succeeds in
presenting “a more intimate, personal and physical sort of
history.""
*Publishers Weekly, Starred review*
"A triumph."
*Judith Flanders*
"Goodman skillfully creates a portrait of daily Victorian life with
accessible, compelling, and deeply sensory prose… Compulsively
readable."
*Erin Entrada Kelly - Library Journal, Starred review*
"If the past is a foreign country because they do things
differently there, we’re lucky to have such a knowledgeable
cicerone as Ruth Goodman…. Goodman’s fascination with the objects
of the past doesn’t lead her to fetishize or romanticize them. She
is admirably matter-of-fact…. Revelatory."
*Alexandra Kimball - Wall Street Journal*
"[E]ntertaining… Goodman mixes historical context with technical
know-how; in addition to explaining why women wore corsets she
tries wearing—and even making—one herself… [T]he book’s
accumulation of detail on matters as diverse as purchasing a ticket
for the new underground railway, administering an opium-based tonic
to a baby, and signaling interest in a homosexual affair makes you
feel as if you could pass as a native."
*The New Yorker*
"Goodman’s research is impeccable, and she attacks the topic with
gusto, taking the reader through an average day and presenting the
oddities of life without condescension… Although the book lends
itself to being read in segments, I read it straight through like a
novel, panting to know what would happen next."
*Patricia Hagen - Minneapolis Star Tribune*
"[A] witty account of life during the monarch’s reign… [Goodman’s]
interest in historical accuracy leads her to experiment with
corsets and home cures. Research for the book led her ‘down
harrowing avenues of hunger, disease, overwork, and abuse.’ Among
the most upsetting are accounts of small children working harder
than most adults do now, sometimes in dangerous and frightening
environments, and on empty stomachs. Often a very funny read, the
book takes seriously the suffering of these kids and their
families."
*Kate Tuttle - Boston Globe*
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