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| www.lucyworsley.com |
If Walls Could Talk
An Intimate History of the Home
by Lucy Worsley
Bloomsbury Publishing, Imprint: Walker and Company
March 7, 2012
A fascinating chronicle of how people really lived, loved and died through England's history.
Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two "dirty centuries"? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly, and truly intimate history of home life. Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes.
Lucy Worsley is, by day, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that looks after The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens. By night, she is a writer and presenter, most recently author of Cavalier: a Tale of Passion, Chivalry and Great Houses, described by the Mail on Sunday as "a remarkable achievement by an immensely talented and innovative historian."Marketing Copy, NetGalley.com
Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the historic royal palaces, takes us through 800 years of domestic history by exploring the British home through four rooms, meeting experts and historians on the way. www.bbc.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
There is a BBC series as well as the book. Not yet available on this side of the pond. Read excerpts from the BBC here.
"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition," says Samuel Johnson, (as quoted) on the last page of Lucy Worsley's excellent treatise on the home. As true as the adage that on their deathbed no one wishes they had spent more time at the office, the home is the place we value more than any other. Would you wish to be in the richest palace if your family could not be with you?
I was really excited when Bloomsbury permitted me an advanced E-Galley of this book. A lot of speculative fiction and romantic fiction is built on an historical model, and the tease "Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm?" was way too alluring not to find out the answer.
What I found was an in-depth treatment of the history of the home through its rooms from before rooms were labeled bedroom, living room, kitchen through the twentieth century and from the poorest homes to the riches manors. Much time is spent on Tudor houses; it seems to be a turning point for the home and is also filled with some surprises. How people treated King Henry VIII's bathroom was very different from the treatment after absolute monarchy had it's head chopped off. Also, the King was never alone, not even at his stool.
Who cooked? Where, and with whom did you eat? How many windows did you have? How many servants did you have? How many candles did you burn? How was your bed made? When did we become the private people we are today; expecting to sleep with just our partners? How did the flush toilet develop and why did it take so long? All these are questions Worsely addresses and it is fascinating, if highly detailed reading. A list of monarchs and their years of reign would be a useful reference to keep at hand. It is perhaps likely that an educated English person would know the dates of every monarch but, we in the States are lucky if we know all the Presidents, never mind when they were in office.
However, the American home is also addressed and compared to the British and European houses. Worsley is able to tie climate, religion, politics and everything thing else, including the kitchen sink together and wrote it all down in an interesting, conversational and, sometimes saucy, tone to create this very valuable book. Humanity's history is the history of human habitation. And, she is incredibly well qualified to put this all together.
Usually I don't mind that an E-galley is only on my list for a period of time before the permissions on it expire. But, this is a reference book and a good read I think I would like to return to again and again. I may even buy a copy myself!
Like Daniel Poole's book What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England (Touchstone 1994) If Walls Could Talk offers a view into a world lost to us. Why should people take note of the situation of a particular room and the size of one's park? And why couldn't Pepys give the poor woman an orgasm? Walls can answer many questions one has when reading an historically accurate story. And, if you just like to visit old houses, or even live in one you probably have lots and lots of questions.
This book is full of answers to those questions. It's fun, humorous, quirky and an easy read. You will, as is said in Jane Austen, be all astonishment!
My Recommendation: Highly recommended to most, must read for lovers of history or historical fiction, and an absolutely must read for anyone writing it!
DISCLOSURE: E-Galley loaned by publisher via NetGalley. No remuneration was exchanged and unless otherwise noted, all opinions are my own.
Available from pre-order through my Amazon affiliation:
