What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England

Oh, what a wonderful, living, time machine of a book. The subject is "daily life in 19th century England." More directly, the book is addressed to anyone who ever read a book by Dickens, Austen, or one of the Bronte sisters, and found themselves struggling along as best they could to grasp the importance of whist, calling cards, and the different types of carriages. I would think that if you're a fan of Victorian literature, you'll love this book, but honestly, I'm not a fan of Victorian literature, and I enjoyed it intensely. We live in a rapidly-changing, diverse, multicultural society now, and while this certainly has its strong points, there seems to be some pleasure in reminding ourselves of the vitality and strength of English society at the height of its 19th century influence. Somewhere underneath our current world, we subconsciously sense a shared heritage here worth remembering (and this has nothing to do with bloodlines; I'm Czech by blood, but still feel the power of a world I care about stirring back to life in this book.) It is -- for lack of a better word -- fun -- to read through these various explanations and to see this forgotten world coming back together. How do I make change, what are shillings and pence again? How do you play the card game, "whist?" What terms of address are people of different social ranks supposed to use with each other? Why are the English eating pudding all the time in these novels? What's the difference between a brougham and a curricle? When am I supposed to leave my calling card, and to whom? And what are all these dances that Elizabeth and Darcy are doing? Victorian literature allows readers to swim in this cultural landscape but never really explains it. One just has to try to pick it all up by osmosis. That's actually a perfectly good way to learn about a culture, but for those of us who like a little more straightforward explanation, this book fits the bill. It's as though you took the Time Machine back to 1835, made your way along as best you could for a while, and finally someone sits you down and says, "OK, THIS is how all this works. Use THIS spoon, and don't call Mr. So-and-so that, it's rude, etc. . . " The light bulb finally goes on in your head, and you feel much better. If the book simply explained all this stuff without being vivid and fun, I wouldn't give it five stars. But it's written with a lively humor and contagious affection. I raced through it, and I think most other interested readers would as well.

If you've read everything by Austen, lots of Trollope and Dickens, you'll enjoy this survey of 19th century English society. I found much in this book that filled in the missing pieces of my understanding of the unwritten rules of this era. The book is divided into two parts: the first has more lengthy explanations of various aspects of Victorian society--marriage, the military, class, money, law, parliament, etc. Diagrams of class rank and period illustrations are helpful. Quotes from some of the most famous novels of the time are used to illustrate the explanations. There are brief histories of the monarchs interspersed throughout, as well as some medieval history that explains how many of the customs came to be. The second half is a dictionary of commom terms you'll come across in novels from the period. While the editing of this book leaves a little to be desired, it is an enjoyable read and a decent reference. Serious anglophiles will find it very basic, but the avid novel reader who's history is only "so-so" will find it invaluable.

I picked this book up after reading _Everyday Life In Regency and Victorian England_, which I thought did a decent job of describing the mundane details of English life in the 1800's. Daniel Pool's book is immensely more interesting, detailed, and enjoyable._What Jane Austen Ate..._ is divided into two parts: a series of essays on daily life in the 19th century, and an exhaustive glossary of words common to the folk of the period, but not to us. Both parts are engaging and interesting, suggesting all sorts of interesting ideas for characters, scenes, plots, and schemes (Most people will read this for background on other works, but I read it to ensure historical accuracy in something I'm working on). Pool refers to classical works by Dickens, Austen and Eliot when describing a certain facet of life to help pull it all together.This book gets 5 stars not because it's the greatest book in the world, but because it's clearly the best of its kind. Readers and writers of 19th century fiction would do well to read it.