Nothing new, not even the terribly incorrect information about corsets and getting dressed. ( )

Some of the pictures are lovely, but the text is bad. Completely ignoring the long and violent struggle for rights sort of bad. By the end of the second world war, the author would have you believe, Britain's 1% just felt it was unfair to deprive the other 99% of everything. This is not history, nor social science, it's not even good anecdotes.

Library copy ( )

A large, glossy book with compelling pictures and just the right amount of information—not enough to drown you, but enough to be really interesting for someone with a strong or casual interest in the Edwardians. It conveys a real sense of the unparalleled excess of the period. Insert pages discuss prominent Edwardians (Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, etc.) and their sometimes-complicated relationships with their servants. ( )

The backstory: My obsession with/love of Downton Abbey has inspired me to learn more about the period and customs of British country homes at that time.

The basics: Upstairs & Downstairs: An Illustrated Guide to the Real World of Downton Abbey is part nonfiction, part coffee table book about typical life in an Edwardian country home.

My thoughts: Most of what I know about this time, I've learned from Downton Abbey. I was curious to learn more about the time, in part to better assess how true Downton is to history. Upstairs & Downstairs was an informative, engaging look into life at the time. Divided into sections based on a typical day. This structure allowed author Sarah Warwick to examine the roles of those upstairs and downstairs simultaneously.

There was much that was familiar from Downton, but I also learned many things that added more nuance to my understanding of the servant's roles on the show. What I enjoyed most about this book, however, were the pictures and illustrations. Visually, the book is both beautiful and fascinating. Through a combination of photographs from the time, drawings, and diagrams, I gained much appreciation for the visual elements on Downton. Ultimately, the visuals in this book are the most enjoyable pieces, but the extensive outline of the general roles, qualifications and pay for servants was quite illuminating.

The verdict: If you're already familiar with the historical detail of this period, there likely isn't much new here. If, however, you want to learn more about the period and its customs, Upstairs & Downstairs is a visually interesting, informative work. ( )

Where I got the book: my local library.

A somewhat entertaining Day in the Life of an Edwardian Household, which appears to have been put together in haste to cash in on the Downton Abbey craze. This is the kind of book where the photographs matter as much as the text, and while some of the images were enlightening, some were just so way off base as to be ridiculous - I particularly remember one of a butler serving a woman in bed, all too obviously culled from a 1930s Hollywood movie. She's wearing makeup, and he's a butler in a lady's bedroom. GET A CLUE.

The one spread I really enjoyed was the enumeration of the different ranks of servant. Otherwise, this is not one I'd buy. ( )