You should have Daily Life in Victorian London : An Extraordinary Anthology (Victorian London Ebooks) (by Victorian London Ebooks) :
Customer Review for this product :
One of life's guilty pleasures -
I came across Lee Jackson quite by accident. For those not in the know (a condition which would describe me a few days ago), Jackson is a historical novelist who also maintains VictorianLondon.org, a sourcebook for all things Victorian. He has been doing this for the past 10 years, so he knows the different levels of Victorian London inside and out.
As this anthology makes clear, Jackson is no dilettante. He may not be the most popular author in the Kindle store, but he is certainly one of the most passionate, and he is clearly in love with the milieu that he chooses to write about. This particular book appears to be a selection from the material available on his website. As a consequence, it is a collection of passages, excerpts, and illustrations from the time. The material is organized alphabetically by topic, and a linked table of contents makes it easy to jump to the different topics of interest.
Jackson has done a pretty good job in formatting and correcting what is essentially public domain material. The value of this anthology, however, comes in his expertise in selecting material that is both representative and interesting. He uses the Kindle format to good advantage in making these diverse topics available to the reader in a way that makes them more accessible than his website. The selections themselves are a lot of fun to read. Jackson has a knack for picking things like letters to the editor and travelogues that refract the Victorian period through the prism of everyday observers.
I read enough of this anthology to feel comfortable buying Jackson's novels as well. He has the potential to become one of my guilty pleasures and is a great find.
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More Detailed Product Description
This anthology has one simple goal: to give the reader a flavour of 'how life was lived' in Victorian London, through the words of the Victorians themselves. It is not a comprehensive study; but I have revisited an archive of ten years' reading and research — nineteenth century diaries, newspapers, magazines, memoirs, guidebooks — in an attempt to include as many diverse aspects of Victorian life as possible. There is, I must admit, a certain bias in my choice of material: I concentrate on the poor and middle-class. Queen Victoria is glimpsed at a distance, in Hyde Park; MPs and members of the aristocracy appear as the patrons of charities; but this is a book about the everyday.
Some of these excerpts make for rather grim reading: the graphic account of a botched back-street abortion; the plight of homeless children, abandoned by their parents; the fever-ridden slums of Jacob's Island. Crime is also to the fore: attempts at blackmail; the rise of the 'hooligan' in Lambeth; the vicious malice of the 'vitriol thrower'. Likewise, it is impossible to neglect the scourge of prostitution in the capital, albeit with one rare instance of a 'soiled dove' who 'made good'. I have, therefore, included a few gratuitous doses of quirky Victoriana, to leaven the mix: advice on keeping pet squirrels; the invention of the snail telegraph (the supposed power of 'escargotic vibration'); how to make tooth powder (with the obligatory drop of cocaine).
I also focus on street life. Hence you will find articles about the giant 'advertising vans' which blocked major thoroughfares; races between rival omnibus companies; the wall painters who engaged in 'guerilla advertising'; the delights of Victorian fast food (sheep's trotters, anyone?). This book, at its best, should provide a vicarious form of time travel. The reader will feel, I hope, that they have walked the streets of Victorian London and, having read the more intimate passages — how to remove bed-bugs; tips on wet-nursing; dire warnings against 'secret vice' — that they have also glimpsed behind closed doors. Some things herein may appear quaint — complaints against the immorality of the 'can-can'; disdain for women practising 'bloomerism' (ie. wearing trousers); the unlikely forfeits demanded by parlour games — but they all throw a revealing light on the distinctive mores of the time.
I hope, too, that a few things will surprise and astonish, to the extent that they seem almost unbelievable (although, rest assured, this work contains no fabrications). Have you ever heard of the enterprising showman who started his 'Jack the Ripper' chamber of horrors in Whitechapel, within weeks of the 1888 murders? Or the peculiar safeguards afforded by corsets? Or the bar-maids who worked in Underground stations? Or the first (and last) Mesmeric Hospital established in London?
It may seem presumptuous to call this an extraordinary anthology; yet it is the extraordinary details of daily life in the 'Great Metropolis' that continue to fascinate me. My only wish is that the reader may share my enthusiasm.
Lee Jackson
2011
Also by this author:
'Dust, Mud, Soot & Soil : The Worst Jobs in Victorian London'
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Customer Review for this product :
One of life's guilty pleasures - I came across Lee Jackson quite by accident. For those not in the know (a condition which would describe me a few days ago), Jackson is a historical novelist who also maintains VictorianLondon.org, a sourcebook for all things Victorian. He has been doing this for the past 10 years, so he knows the different levels of Victorian London inside and out.
As this anthology makes clear, Jackson is no dilettante. He may not be the most popular author in the Kindle store, but he is certainly one of the most passionate, and he is clearly in love with the milieu that he chooses to write about. This particular book appears to be a selection from the material available on his website. As a consequence, it is a collection of passages, excerpts, and illustrations from the time. The material is organized alphabetically by topic, and a linked table of contents makes it easy to jump to the different topics of interest.
Jackson has done a pretty good job in formatting and correcting what is essentially public domain material. The value of this anthology, however, comes in his expertise in selecting material that is both representative and interesting. He uses the Kindle format to good advantage in making these diverse topics available to the reader in a way that makes them more accessible than his website. The selections themselves are a lot of fun to read. Jackson has a knack for picking things like letters to the editor and travelogues that refract the Victorian period through the prism of everyday observers.
I read enough of this anthology to feel comfortable buying Jackson's novels as well. He has the potential to become one of my guilty pleasures and is a great find.
Check Best Price Here
More Detailed Product Description
This anthology has one simple goal: to give the reader a flavour of 'how life was lived' in Victorian London, through the words of the Victorians themselves. It is not a comprehensive study; but I have revisited an archive of ten years' reading and research — nineteenth century diaries, newspapers, magazines, memoirs, guidebooks — in an attempt to include as many diverse aspects of Victorian life as possible. There is, I must admit, a certain bias in my choice of material: I concentrate on the poor and middle-class. Queen Victoria is glimpsed at a distance, in Hyde Park; MPs and members of the aristocracy appear as the patrons of charities; but this is a book about the everyday.
Some of these excerpts make for rather grim reading: the graphic account of a botched back-street abortion; the plight of homeless children, abandoned by their parents; the fever-ridden slums of Jacob's Island. Crime is also to the fore: attempts at blackmail; the rise of the 'hooligan' in Lambeth; the vicious malice of the 'vitriol thrower'. Likewise, it is impossible to neglect the scourge of prostitution in the capital, albeit with one rare instance of a 'soiled dove' who 'made good'. I have, therefore, included a few gratuitous doses of quirky Victoriana, to leaven the mix: advice on keeping pet squirrels; the invention of the snail telegraph (the supposed power of 'escargotic vibration'); how to make tooth powder (with the obligatory drop of cocaine).
I also focus on street life. Hence you will find articles about the giant 'advertising vans' which blocked major thoroughfares; races between rival omnibus companies; the wall painters who engaged in 'guerilla advertising'; the delights of Victorian fast food (sheep's trotters, anyone?). This book, at its best, should provide a vicarious form of time travel. The reader will feel, I hope, that they have walked the streets of Victorian London and, having read the more intimate passages — how to remove bed-bugs; tips on wet-nursing; dire warnings against 'secret vice' — that they have also glimpsed behind closed doors. Some things herein may appear quaint — complaints against the immorality of the 'can-can'; disdain for women practising 'bloomerism' (ie. wearing trousers); the unlikely forfeits demanded by parlour games — but they all throw a revealing light on the distinctive mores of the time.
I hope, too, that a few things will surprise and astonish, to the extent that they seem almost unbelievable (although, rest assured, this work contains no fabrications). Have you ever heard of the enterprising showman who started his 'Jack the Ripper' chamber of horrors in Whitechapel, within weeks of the 1888 murders? Or the peculiar safeguards afforded by corsets? Or the bar-maids who worked in Underground stations? Or the first (and last) Mesmeric Hospital established in London?
It may seem presumptuous to call this an extraordinary anthology; yet it is the extraordinary details of daily life in the 'Great Metropolis' that continue to fascinate me. My only wish is that the reader may share my enthusiasm.
Lee Jackson
2011
Also by this author:
'Dust, Mud, Soot & Soil : The Worst Jobs in Victorian London'
ADVERTISEMENT
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