This book was a great disappointment to me. It was one that I've been wanting to read ever since I first heard of it, but it did not live up to expectations at all. The chatty and interesting title of the book led me to believe that the work itself would charm, which it did not. It was tedious and dry, and certainly more of a reference book than a study of social history. I will keep it on a shelf with my other reference books, but I don't see getting a lot of use out of it. ( )

I read this really slowly...over the course of this entire year, in fact. I really enjoyed all the information and plan to keep it handy since it offers a wonderful glossary in the back to aid me in my Victorian Reading Challenge this year. In fact, I plan to go back right away and read the chapter on the church again now that I've visited several and spent some time learning more about the Church of England.

Some fun take-aways:

It was interesting reading about apprenticeships and the laws regarding them.

The laws about dead bodies cracked me up: "Strangely enough, the law was not harsh on people having bodies, unexplained, in their possession, but if the bodies had graveclothes on them, the punishment was seven years' transportation."

I'll update more after rereading a few chapters... ( )

Great book, but I can't read anymore of it: too many spoilers for books I want to read eventually. ( )

This book was a little silly compared to some of the other, more immersive books that I've read on the subject of daily life and customs in 19th century England. It's more like a books of facts rather than a book that follows a narrative. I think it would definitely be handy to have around as a reference for when you are reading literature from this time period. ( )

I picked it up on a whim at the library and, as soon as I picked it up to read, knew I had made a mistake. Apart from monetary matters (who can keep British coinage and slang about coinage straight anyway) I knew most of it from deduction and various histories. Thus, I was not the primary target for this book.

Bother.

And, to further complicate matters, new research has since been published that questions some of the facts presented herein.

Double bother.

But I skimmed it anyway. And found that there were some sections that deserved skimming because they skimmed themselves.

Also, I felt that the time (1780s to 1880s) was a little too broad. Picking one time period (either Victorian or pre-Victorian) would have allowed for more specificity. ( )