Book Review by Rachel

Well my lovely friend is at it again! She has written a wonderful review of the book What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew. So enough from me here is Rachel;

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool

I’m a sucker for books on social history. I like to know what people ate and how they wore their clothes, and all of those little tidbits that makes up everyday living. If you have an interest in the Regency Period (early 1800s) in Britain, then this is the book for you. It’s filled with an array of information about the daily dealings of people living at this time. It extends from food to clothes to dances to manners and so much more.

What’s great about the book is that it really provides a good base knowledge for the time period without feeling too dense. Some history books can be hard to digest and require a thorough reading. I feel this book is a really good beginners guide to the era. If you are interested in Dickens, Austen, the Brontes, or Trollope, this will give you a good historical background on the social construct of the time. It also helps if you enjoy historical novels of the period and even romance novels of the period. Finally, if you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, it could give you an understanding of the social constructs they were leaving behind. Taking place 100 years later, they are just moving beyond the traditional social constructs that were such a large part of the land (and are still in place to a great extent, though wealth provides more upward mobility than it once did).

It’s one of those books I have read several times because (besides being a history nerd) it’s got so many tidbits of information throughout that it’s hard to remember all of the information. Even after years of historical study, it manages to enlighten me, and I fully recommend it for anyone interested in Regency, Edwardian, and even Victorian Britain. Happy Reading!!