The Georgian house

 

    A large part of Edinburgh's elegance and grandeur is its Georgian architecture - buildings of fine proportion and craftsmanship which speak of an ordered society and a particular way of life. My own home is of that period, and while I know something of its previous occupants (title deeds and censuses have given me part of the story), I've often wondered just what life was like for the people who lived here and in similar houses across the city in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

    Amanda Vickery's excellent book Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England is an engaging, comprehensive and detailed look at domestic life in the Georgian period (its emphasis, as the title suggests, on English society). Using original diaries, letters, account books, court records and such like as her primary source material, and supporting that with many references to the literature of the time, Amanda has reconstructed the 'domestic' and examined 'domesticity', observing, interpreting and setting in context the way in which our ancestors lived and why. What comes across most strongly is that she has got into her subjects' shoes - she knows how they think and what they feel: the codes by which they live, their aspirations, their values - and she tells the Georgian story with vivacity, with wit and wry asides, her commentary informed by her scholarship and meticulous research but also by her own lively personality.

    I so enjoyed this book from its at times heart-rending character portraits to its wealth of information on subjects such as wallpaper and the significance of a well-ordered linen cupboard, from the supreme importance of privacy and personal property (no matter how lowly one's status) to women's 'work'  - needlework, mostly - as pastime, saver of sanity, staver off of boredom and mark of individuality. Its depiction of a deferential, decorous society for which ideas of hierarchy and order formed the framework and supporting structure is opulently embellished with the sort of fascinating and telling personal detail that delights the reader on every page, and I recommend it thoroughly.

Comments

[Dark Puss]

What does she say about science, philosophy and politics in the home? Were they widely discussed amongst the educated classes at home or not?

[Cornflower]

Ah, you'll have to read the book yourself, DP! I can tell you that scientific objects are covered, and that is very interesting.

[Dark Puss]

Thank you, I'll see if I can track down a copy (when I've finished Middlemarch).

[Darlene]

That sticker on the book says it's now a miniseries! Oh this is good news, well, it will be if it makes its way over to Canada. Fingers crossed...

[Cornflower]

I hope you will get the series, Darlene, as I enjoyed it very much - the book takes it all to another level, of course.

[Kate {The Parchment Girl}]

This sounds like a really fascinating book! I've read a fair amount about Victorian society, but I am largely unfamiliar with the Georgian era.

[Lyn]

Thank you for the review. I have the book on the tbr shelves & have been dipping in to it but now I really want to read it cover to cover. Like Kate, I've read lots about the Victorian period but I've only recently become more interested by the Georgians.

[Cornflower]

It is fascinating, Kate, both the overall 'story' of the period in domestic terms, and the individual narratives and subjects covered.

[Cornflower]

I'm sure you won't be disappointed, Lyn!

[Simon (Savidge Reads)]

I have enjoyed the TV series when I have managed to get a chance to see it and I have wondered if the book might be a rather wonderful read.