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Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840-1870 Paperback – 1 Sep 2006

by Liza Picard (Author)

1 customer review

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Product details

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co; 1 edition (1 June 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780753820902
ISBN-13: 978-0753820902
ASIN: 0753820900
Product Dimensions: 13 x 3.2 x 19.7 cm
Boxed-product Weight: 381 g
Average Customer Review: 1 customer review
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 58,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #465 in History of England (Books)
- #630 in 19th Century History
- #937 in History of Ireland (Books)

Product description

Review

A highly readable account of nineteenth-century London... Picard's book is a mine of information told with great enthusiasm and passion. - EXPRESS (7/7/06)

This is a comprehensive history by anecdote, so the enlightening facts come thick and fast... Picard enforces the idea that history really is all around us. - TELEGRAPH (8/7/06)

Her survey of Victorian London is as enjoyably wide-ranging as her previous volumes, and her curiosity about apparent trivia resurrects the realities of the past more successfully than many more solemn works of social and political analysis do. - SUNDAY TIMES (30/7/06)

Book Description

From rag-gatherers to royalty, from fish knives to Freemasons: everyday life in Victorian London.

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Amazon.com: 32 reviews

E. L. Roushanzamir

Detailed, chatty, charming, coy

10 November 2013 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

This book is detailed, chatty and charming, if coy. It's a bit like reading a good gossip. Popular histories vary greatly in their reliability, documentation and writing style and this is better than many. A reader doesn't expect or want a scholarly tome. But it's frustrating too. Best example, in a section titled "how to be a lady" the author provides an end note to what she calls an amalgam of sources of good advice: "for once I have not studded this account with notes." How unfortunate, since I had turned immediately to the end note to follow up on the amalgam she tantalized me with. I had reached this point in the book having decided to ignore a gratuitous remark a few pages earlier that Karl Marx never applied himself to "the normal expedient of working for a living." However, Marx' prodigious and influential output (whatever one's opinion about it) far exceeds Picard's, admirable & entertaining as many will find it. I have started and stopped reading frequently, but I do plan to finish the book. Bottom line, Amazon's 3-star "OK" rating sums up perfectly my response to a book about a topic that I'm interested in and highly motivated to pursue.

6 people found this helpful.

Amazon Customer

Good for what it is.

20 October 2007 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

This book is nice for what it is--a survey of Victorians and their city by a nonexpert who nevertheless did very thorough research. If you are not very familiar with the Victorian age, I recommend this book strongly.

Because of the title, I was hoping for an in-depth analysis of LONDON, above all. I wanted descriptions of neighborhoods, of shopping districts, photographs of streetfronts, details of every district, its flavor, and the changes it underwent. The book is nearly useless in that regard.

If you not are wanting compact information about the historical London but rather rather a general book about Victorian attitudes, amusements, and pasttimes with a little dash of infrastructural information, this is a great read. It is a shame that the book's title and blurb do not reflect the content.

Quick note: The author was thrown off my pictures of servant girls in fancy dresses. Early photography studios kept a stock of nice clothes on hand, and so what a lower-middle to low class person is wearing in a photography studio picture shouldn't be thought to be representative of what they actually owned.

12 people found this helpful.

Ronald H. Clark

Another Delightful View of London History

4 April 2006 - Published on Amazon.com

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This is the fourth book the author has written on the history of London. The others dealt with Elizabethan, Restoration, and Dr. Johnson's London. Much as its predecessors, this volume on early Victorian London is a treasure and a delight to read. While the author focuses upon some of the physical aspects of the city (i.e., rivers, streets, buildings), the book really is much more concerned with the daily life of the city during the (1840-1870) period, and that is its great strength. Therefore, there are chapters for example on poverty, the class system, domestic service (a hard way to go), houses and gardens, food, clothing (surprisingly interesting), health, the Crystal Palace exhibition, education, religion and death. The author's research is extensive and she really knows the city. Her discussion is very informal and breezy to read--almost as if one were sitting across from her at tea time. The abundant illustrations add greatly to the narrative. This is apparently the finale of her series--this is too bad, for volumes on the late Victorian and Edwardian periods would have been of great value as well.

12 people found this helpful.

A Florida Reader

A Simply Marvelous Book!

2 March 2011 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

I love this book. Just to let you know that up front.

This is a marvelous history of London, the city and the people, from 1840 to 1870. Picard writes in a familiar, casual style what is was like to be in the city during those years. You can get a sense of the style of the book by just listing the first few chapter titles: "Smells", "The River", "The Streets", "The Railways", "Buildings", "Practicalities", etc. Picard relates fascinating details with superb storytelling skills. The book reads as if some well educated close friend was telling you about the city with evident knowledge, but with a distinct desire not to bore or become too tied down in trivia.

I very much recommend this book to those who wish to learn more about England and her people, but also to anyone who has a desire to read a very well written non-fiction book.

One person found this helpful.

C. M Mills

The Smells, sounds, society and daily life of Victorian London explained in readable prose

16 July 2006 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

Liza Pickard is a barrister with a mighty pen. She has authored several books about London. These Include: Life in

Elizabethan London: Restoration London; Dr. Johnson's London

and now this fourth book in the series.

Picard has done her homework: her reading of first person diaries and sources; periodical articles from the age. She includes

excellent secondary sources giving the reader an accurate view of

life when Victoria reigned the British Empire. The little Queen

ruled for 64 years from 1837 to her death in 1901.

Picard's chapters deal with such topics as:

daily life for the poor, middle class and wealthy;

the smells and the sights of London;

male and female fashions;

church life and the judicial system of Victorian England;

Amusements from opera strolling in the park to riding a horse

on Rotten Row.

Household appliances and the chores of childrearing;

Disease and Death traditions. Medicine made progress.

the growth of the railroads and road construction;

the Great Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851;

Education expanding its opportunities through Ragged Schools

and church schools.

There are many other topics but you get the idea. The book is

not thrilling but it is essential to a student of English history or literature who wants to sample life for the average

Londoner living from 1840-1870.

16 people found this helpful.

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