Victorians At Home

Takes readers through daily life in a Victorian house on a room-by-room basis, providing detailed descriptions of each area's furnishings and decorations while recounting events that may have transpired in the parlor, master bedroom, scullery, sickroom, and more. By the author of A Circle of Sisters. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

A middle class home, circa 1850, of the sort that many people live in today, is the focus of Judith Flanders' book. The Victorian age is both recent and unimaginably distant. In the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation in the world, people carried slops up and down stairs; buried meat in fresh earth to prevent mould forming; wrung sheets out in boiling water with their bare hands. This drudgery was routinely performed by the parents of people still living, but the knowledge of it has passed as if it had never been. Running water, stoves, flush lavatories - even lavatory paper - arrived slowly throughout the century; and most were luxuries available only to the prosperous.

Focuses mainly on the details associated with the victorian period in England. Linda Osband uses an even mix of beautiful photographs and detailed sketches to illustrate the many design elements of the period. She includes a list of suppliers in the U.K., USA, Australia, France and Germany for those wishing to restore their current home.

First published in 1978, this book explores everyday Victorian likes and dislikes, manners, fashions, ideals and illusions. It discusses their changing attitudes to women, children, the poor, the common soldier and their country. It explains the rise and fall of home entertainment, the growth of soccer, racing and cricket to national sports, the rise of public schools and new professions as well as the appeal of missionary work. It is argued that all this happened not because the Victorians were fools, hypocrites or villains, but because they sensibly adapted themselves to peculiar and novel circumstances. This title will be of interest to students of history.

Plates are generally for exterior painting, but a few plates are for interiors, i.e. fireplace surrounds, hallways, and ceilings.

Exquisitely detailed, exceptionally handsome designs for an enormous variety of attractive city dwellings, spacious suburban and country homes, charming "cottages" and other structures — all accompanied by perspective views and floor plans.

A comprehensive tour of 19th century fashion and decor, The Victorian Home leads you through a typical period house, then describes how to recreate the warmth and charm of Victorian style in your own home.