I am a great fan of Amanda Vickery’s books. And I think that they should be required reading for anyone interested in the social history of the Georgian era.
Her previous work The Gentleman’s Daughter was a wonderfully detailed exploration of the intimate lives of women in the 18th century and helped many of us to a greater understanding of Jane Austen’s female character’s lives by setting them in a recognisable historical context .
Her new book Behind Closed Doors : at home in Georgian England once again takes the domestic realm as it subject but details it on a much wider scale.
She does not concentrate on one class of people but considers , in minute detail, the intimate lives of landladies, lodgers tradesmen and women ,professionals and aristocrats living in both London and in the provinces.
Its scale is breathtaking and the detail, delicious.
And what I really adore is that she admits the historical truth of Jane Austen’s writings by including copious quotes from the six novels to illustrate her points. Indeed, she devotes almost half a chapter of the book to consider the way in which the subject of the home is treated by Austen’s heroines and heroes, even going so far as to paraphrase the famous opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Georgian house with a drawing room,French windows and lawns must be in want of a mistress…
It was an irresistible and understandable opportunity ….I dare-say had I been given the chance to play with that famous line, I would not have let it pass either…
While reading Professor Vickery’s descriptions of the lives and experiences of individuals the Jane Austen devotee will find many parallels with the situations in which her characters find themselves. For example, look at this passage on the unenviable plight of the genteel, dependant spinster:
Many, if not most, families exploited their unmarried womenfolk, as unpaid housekeepers, nursery maids and sick-nurses, tutors, chaperons, companions and surrogate mothers. Some spinsters were commended for their pains, and drew satisfaction from their value to the family enterprise. Frances Blundell was ‘one of the best spokes in the wheel on which our fortunes have turned’, acknowledged her brother William. Conversely, a hundred years later in the same county, Ellen Weeton and her widowed mother forwent ‘the comforts, and even many of the necessaries of life, to support my brother at Preston’ training to be a lawyer, imagining that he ‘would repay us when old enough for all these deprivations’. But it was a vain expectation, ‘for like all his sex, when he was grown up, he considered what had been done for him was his right; that he owed no gratitude to us, for we were but female relatives, and had only done our duty’. Lawyer Weeton declined to offer his sister a home because ‘such a kind of family was very unpleasant, causing the most unhappy dissensions’. Some spinsters questioned their lot, but their options for improvement were narrow. ‘Should her destination be to remain an inhabitant in her father’s house’, Priscilla Wakefield intoned, ‘cheerfulness, good temper, and obliging resignation of her will to that of others, will be there equally her duty, and her interest’. Eventually, of course, ‘it will belong to her to enliven, cheer, to amuse the latter moments of her parent’s declining age’.” Dependent women were to adapt themselves to the rhythms and priorities of the household. Self-sacrifice on the altar of family was the sentence of the spinster.
The depictions of Miss Bates, Charlotte Lucas and even the Austen sisters themselves resonate here. And so it goes on throughout the book.
The book is beautifully produced , printed on fine glossy paper and illustrated in black and white and colour with very appropriate and carefully chosen illustrations:
Here , for example , we have two examples of wallpaper circa 1790 taken from a house in Manchester Street, London. The chapter on home decorating (Wallpaper and Taste) is fascinating.
I confess I have devoured this book and read it quickly almost at one sittting.I am going to revisit it over the next few weeks savouring its detail. I highly recommend this book to you: anyone who is keen on Jane Austen’s works will enjoy delving into the minutiae of real people’s lives – especially as many of the lives have telling details which echo in Austen’s works.
Is it too much to hope that this book will soon appear in a Kindle edition?
21 comments
November 7, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Rae
Aha!! For once I got there before you could recommend it to me, and bought it a couple of weeks ago :-) I am savouring it by reading it a little at a time. I love the way she describes the lives of such a range of people, and I also had a smile at the number of times she uses Austen as her reference point. Fabulous book.
November 7, 2009 at 4:44 pm
myenglishcountrygarden
Hey! I couldn’t recommend it to you before I had this blog…;-) I have thoroughly enjoyed it: it is a book I know I am going to refer to again and again.
November 7, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Laurel Ann
Good news. I have been awaiting delivery. It comes out November 17th in the US. Publisher is Yale Univeristy Press, but it is considered a UK publication I assume – so you lucky ducks got it weeks ago!
Thanks for your impressions Julie. I am looking forward to another excellent Amanda Vickery dive into Georgian history.
Cheers, LA
November 8, 2009 at 11:59 am
myenglishcountrygarden
I love Yale productions-just such wonderful attention to detail and so well produced. And I do wish, wish, wish I could get there for their current Mrs Delany exhibit-but Im going to have to wait to go with a friend from Ireland to see when it comes to London next year. She recently wrote a fabulous and very well received book on Mrs Delany and is quite the expert so Im privileged to be able to go with her. So it cuts both ways, doesn’t ti? LOl I hate the Atlantic sometimes…..
November 9, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Elaine Simpson-Long
I have just discovered your blog and I can see many happy hours of reading ahead of me. I also have this Vickery book awaiting review. I was lucky enough to have a copy sent to me by Yale and, apart from anything else, their books are so beautifully produced and a joy to hold and feel,
November 9, 2009 at 2:48 pm
myenglishcountrygarden
Hello Elaine! How lovely to “see” you here. I discovered your blog this year via Bookish NYC ;-) I so agree about the Yale books- such perfect presentations in a world of blotting paper/grey illustrations. I feel sure you will adore this book.Its very well written and thoroughly enjoyable. I do hope you will pop over here again soon .
November 9, 2009 at 10:04 pm
emasl
Oh I shall visit again, that is certain. I adore Jane Austen so to discover your blog (again BookishNYC is the culprit) is a joy. I have added you to my blogroll so can nip over on a regular basis.
November 11, 2009 at 10:22 am
myenglishcountrygarden
Brilliant! And thank you very much for tech link. I do hope you enjoy your visits here… ;-)
November 10, 2009 at 12:33 am
Cathy Allen
It looks wonderful, Julie, and I’ve added it to my wish-list. Thank you.
CEA
November 11, 2009 at 10:23 am
myenglishcountrygarden
You will adore it Cathy. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
November 27, 2009 at 11:52 am
Elizabeth K
Thanks, Julie. This is on my book wish-list; I read an excellent review of it in The Guardian and look forward to reading it.
I have just got “The Gentleman’s Daughter”, as I was looking for an in-depth book about the lives of Georgian women and I knew that you highly recommended it. I have not yet had the time to read it cover-to-cover but it looks extremely interesting and insightful.
November 28, 2009 at 5:38 pm
jfwakefield
The Gentleman’s Daughter is quite a difficult read-especially the introduction.,but it is worth it ,so do persevere .I love that book,and have it near to my computer all the time.
December 1, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Elizabeth K
Thanks! I am enjoying it very much and I like the depth of the material which Vickery covers; I will certainly be buying more of her books, “Behind Closed Doors” is next. :-)
Elizabeth
December 1, 2009 at 12:30 pm
jfwakefield
I’m sure Professor Vickery will be pleased. As you know I’ve always thought The Gentleman’s Daughter should be required reading for lovers of Austen. I add Behind Closed Doors to that list. I spoke to her via email this morning as she has very kindly linked this blog from her website. I’m very touched and grateful.
December 12, 2009 at 1:33 pm
imogen88
Hooray and Hurrah!! Thanks Julie, for letting me know more about this, via the link I got from the review in TLS newsletter. I am so pleased because I know over and over again you have recommended The Gentleman’s Daughter!! Great to read this review, and it does sound marvellous, will try and get hold of it. It is great also to know there are authors with such a commitment to the validity of history and the text.
December 27, 2009 at 11:30 am
My Christmas Loot « Austenprose
[…] I read my dear friend Julie at Austenonly’s beaming book review of Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England, I knew that I must read Amanda Vickery’s new […]
February 18, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Amamda Vickery Behind Closed Doors Lectures « austenonly
[…] February 18, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: Amanda Vickery, Behind Closed Doors, Fairfax House, Georgian Group, York Literature Festival | by jfwakefield I thought you might like to know that Amanda Vickery will be giving some lectures in England in relation to her new book, Behind Closed Doors. […]
February 26, 2010 at 11:08 am
Guest Blog Post: Amanda Vickery’s Lecture on “Behind Closed Doors” at the Gregorian Group, Fitzroy Square, London « austenonly
[…] Vickery gave an animated and fascinating lecture based on her recent book ‘Behind Closed Doors‘ to a packed room at the Georgian group. She began by describing the ways in which the […]
June 5, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Free Amanda Vickery Podcast « austenonly
[…] just discovered a lovely podcast by Amanda Vickery on the subject of her latest celebrated book, Behind Closed Doors, and I thought I ought to share it with […]
June 20, 2010 at 9:31 am
I am for….Kelmarsh « austenonly
[…] am finally (finally!!) going to hear Professor Amanda Vickery talk about her book, Behind Closed Doors, and I am looking forward to it very […]
June 21, 2010 at 9:40 am
Amanda Vickery and John Styles at the Country House Book Day, Kelmarsh Hall. « austenonly
[…] performance from Professor Vickery, author of the very interesting and rightly lauded book, BehindClosed Doors, and The Gentleman’s Daughter. She gave a talk full of riveting information and good humour. […]