There may indeed be more about S-bends than sex in this book, but don’t let that stop you from reading Judith Flanders’s utterly engrossing account of domestic life in Victorian England.  From the bedroom to the sickroom, Flanders dissects each room in a typical Victorian house:  the room’s purpose, how it would be furnished and at what cost, and, very important to the hygienically obsessed Victorians, how the room would be cleaned.  Flanders also explores related topics for each room, e.g.; the bedroom chapter alone has information on childbirth, bedbugs, infant formula, cleaning hairbrushes, coal residue, and baby binders.  Period journal entries, letters, sketches, and paintings are the icing on an already remarkably rich and witty text (don’t skip the footnotes!).  Victorian life in all its smelly, dirty, coal residued glory from cradle to grave – what could be more interesting?

Check out Inside the Victorian Home today!