I've been fascinated by the Victorian era since my early teens, and that was 50 years ago. So having spent half a century reading every novel from the period that I could find, many works of social history, and an awful lot of historical fiction, it's unsurprising that much of the primary information in How the Victorians Lived was not totally new to me.

And yet I found it a captivating read. Perfect for social history aficionados, it contains a wealth of detail in highly readable form. The sort of details that don't emerge in fiction. The details that are lost in non-fiction texts or are depicted through interminable boring references to dry academic sources. In How the Victorians Lived, we have just enough minutiae to make the topic come alive, without drowning in data.

For example, from the section "Inside the Workhouse":

"The interiors were all similar with communal dormitories for sleeping in, a communal dining room for eating in, a large kitchen, a bakery, a brewery, an infirmary for the sick, a laundry room, a sewing room, a nursery for the babies, a schoolroom for the children and a garden for growing vegetables or an exercise yard. Some workhouses even kept pigs and chickens. Generally, the workhouses tried to be self sufficient to keep costs down."

It continues: "...the conundrum was how to look after the poor humanely without encouraging entrance into the workhouses [...] Discipline became the focal point of the workhouse system [...] a complete lack of any material comforts...." She goes on to detail the process for families entering the workhouse, the clothing the inmates wore, the daily routine, work, food, etc, It's rather grim.

This section helps enlighten the reader as to why the workhouse, though on paper sounding quite attractive, was designed to deter people from entering and became a dreaded institution. It also illustrates one of the key contradictions of the era: how social reforms that [arguably] aimed to improve the social condition could potentially make the lives of the poor even more harsh.

How the Victorians Lived is, for me, the ideal format for social history. It covers a huge range of topics: money, food, fashion, science and technology, communication and travel, medicine, crime and more. While it may not meet some standards of academic rigour, it does create a vivid picture of how people lived, the things they were concerned about, and all the upheavals that characterised this era of rapid change. All in all, a gripping read and highly recommended for anyone interested in better understanding the Victorian period.

Even if you thought you knew it pretty well already!

Thanks to the author, publisher Pen and Sword History and Netgalley for the ARC. All my reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, regardless of how I acquire the book.

#NetGalley #bookreview #ShonaParker #HowTheVictoriansLived @penandswordbooks.bsky.social

I've been obsessed with Victorian England since I was a small child. Shona Parker really kept me interested throughout the entire book. I love these glimpses into the past. Please make more!

A time of unprecedented progress and empire-building, the Victorian era witnessed a dramatic transformation of society. This book explores how writers and journalists documented the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the modern world.

This book delves deeply into the lives of Victorians of all social classes. Fascinating and fun to read, it’s an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the Victorian era. As an author of historical fiction, I highly recommend it.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

In England, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901.The era followed the Georgian era and preceded the Edwardian era, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe.Various liberalising political reforms took place in the UK, including expanding the electoral franchise. The Great Famine caused mass death in Ireland early in the period. The British Empire had relatively peaceful relations with the other great powers. It participated in various military conflicts, mainly against minor powers. The British Empire expanded during this period and was the predominant power in the world.Victorian society valued a high standard of personal conduct across all sections of society. The emphasis on morality gave impetus to social reform but also placed restrictions on certain groups' liberty. Prosperity rose during the period, but debilitating undernutrition persisted. Literacy and childhood education became near universal in Great Britain for the first time. Whilst some attempts were made to improve living conditions, slum housing and disease remained a severe problem.The period saw significant scientific and technological development. Britain was advanced in industry and engineering in particular, but somewhat undeveloped in art and education.A clear separation was established between the home and the workplace, which had often not been the case before.The home was seen as a private environment, where housewives provided their husbands with a respite from the troubles of the outside world.Within this ideal, women were expected to focus on domestic matters and to rely on men as breadwinners.Women had limited legal rights in most areas of life, and a feminist movement developed.Religion was politically controversial, with Nonconformists pushing for the disestablishment of the Church of England.It was a 'Victorian Crisis of Faith', when religious views had to readjust to accommodate new scientific knowledge and criticism of the Bible.Despite legislation, work continued to inhibit children's schooling into the 20th century.

In this fascinating insight into Victorian Britain, Shona Parker brings the nineteenth century to life in this complex and descriptive nonfiction book. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of Victorian life in great detail, with sections within the chapters focusing on specific elements of the larger chapter theme. This book covers all social classes, occupations, and genders through its focus on the minutia of the lives of many rather than the more detailed lives of a few. From medicine to the home to transportation, communication, and food, Parker goes into incredible detail and supplements each section with quotes and excerpts from historical documents that provide more insights and details into Victorian lives. Parker’s prose is straightforward and engaging, and the sections and chapters are manageable lengths with clear language. Making history relatable, this is a great book for historians and for amateur readers taking their first foray into the genre or time period. The level of detail is absolutely amazing and provides a lot of context for other history and historical fiction books set in the Victorian era. A great easy history book, the depth of detail and information about daily Victorian life really makes this a fantastic option for anyone interested in the time period.

Shona Parker has done an exceptional job in exploring and bringing to life a period of significant cultural, political and industrial change. It’s a remarkable era and her approach views it through the eyes of mainly ordinary people. For anyone wishing to gain some insight into the Victorians, this is an ideal book to delve into. It’s written in a way that’s detailed, but accessible and interesting. There are numerous literary references throughout and the chapters are broken down into subjects including money, health, home, Parliament, education and more. Each gives a real feel for the subject and how society was affected and shaped during this time. Research appears to be meticulous and it’s one of the best non fiction titles I’ve read this year.

A broad overview of all the different aspects of life in the victorian era.
I love finding out how people lived throughout different periods of history and so I enjoyed this book and thought it gave a good amount of information but didn't go indepth.
It ended quite abruptly which I didn't like and think it could have been done better.

I have been fascinated by Victorian history ever since I was a young child, so was incredibly grateful to be granted my wish for this book. As someone who loves historical fiction set in Victorian times, this book helped contextualize the fiction I read.

This book provides as fascinating glimpse into Victorian society. While it is a non-fiction book that gives a lot of information, the writing is extremely readable, and I found it sustained my interest. The breadth of topics covered was fascinating. The author covered everything from the roles of men and women in different classes, to how children were educated, what people ate, how people entered the workhouse, the changing nature of work across the Victorian period, and even how rubbish and waste were managed.

Overall a fascinating read to give any history lover a solid foundation in how Victorians lived in their daily lives.

How the Victorian's Lived by Shona Parker is an in depth look into the daily lives of those who lived in the Victorian Age, from children to adults and poor to rich. It covers everything from religious matters to jobs to school, depending on the rank of the individual in question, and it does cover quite a bit of history of that time period.

However, while informative and interesting, it can be very dry in places. I didn't really enjoy the formatting of the chapters. At some times it felt like I was reading a text book for a high school student. Besides that, the research and knowledge Parker put into the novel clearly shows and I do think if you are a fan of Victorian history, you should pick up this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Pen & Sword for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. You can find this book on Ishelves June 30, 2024.

How The Victorians Live by Shona Parker like most books covering the subject of all those who came before and how they lived I found this one was mainly based on poverty although they did cover how Victorians communicated what they wore and there was even a chapter on Charles dickens and his fathers stay in Detor‘s prison. She also put an information that in my opinion wasn’t true like the fact that boys got an education and if you were a girl then you did it well her exact words if you were a girl forget it but no don’t forget it because mini influential women started girls schools not to mention some parents educated the daughter on how to read and granite not a lot but I think when telling other people you should tell it all in detail and not caused people to think one thing when something else is the truth. I mean the author even discusses The changing styles of riding outfits but couldn’t put in that some girls did get an education. I found a lot of this book was told to you as opposed to engaging you in the story being told and Although I read the whole thing from how they cooked to what they wore to how they communicated ET see it just wasn’t my favorite book on the subject. I’m sure lots of people will love this book I only found it OK.#PenAndSwordPress,#NetGalley, #ShonaParker, #HowTheVictoriansLived,

As soon a I seen the cover for this book I knew I needed it! It did not disappoint!

“The Victorian era; a steady, relentless building of the modern world”.

Such a delight to read, very interesting and another reason why I love reading about the Victorian era :)

A must read for history and Victorian readers.

We learn about Victorian life from how the country was run, Victorian parliament, marriage, health, home, schools, and so much more.

“Men and women were expected to get married but if a man never married it wasn’t the end of the world”. (Rolls eyes!) I actually don’t know why I love this era so much when you have statements like this! Hence why I’m lucky I wasn’t born back then.

The only small issue I had was I wish there had been more pictures from this era to view.

How the Victorians Lived by Shona Parker is a highly fascinating and informative book about life in Victorian England from Christianity to Charles Dickens' experiences to classes to gender roles. But Parker goes much beyond that and writes in detail about education (25% of children went and often had to do lessons twice to accommodate everyone), the definition of "gentleman", buildings and shortcuts which led to damp and sagging, the "Blue Stocking Society", the usefulness of hedgehogs and slow worms, dame and rugged schools, debtor's prison and workhouses, laws regarding the poor, sewage/night soil collecting issues, implementation of the penny post, eating at "ordinaries", displaying dead insects, two-minute amputations and fingerprinting.

The book highlights the dreadful disparity between low, middle and upper classes and hopelessness of the poor. I've read countless books on the subject and am always grateful to learn more about this era. The influence of Queen Victoria was profound and impactful and truly changed the course of history. As a rabid Dickens fan, I'm always awed by his knowledge, compassion and reform. Thank goodness for his vivid and thoughtful accounts! We have much to learn from his timeless wisdom.

If you are intrigued by Victorian life, do not miss this book, chock full of riveting details on every page. It prompted me to do further digging into specifics.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this engrossing book.

How the Victorians Lived helps the reader to imagine how was it to live in Victorian times. It's an interesting book with plenty of details that help a person to immerse themselves in those times. All the photos from the book are great help to imagine those times.

A terrific insight into the era. The author has cleverly balanced detailed research with an engaging writing style to create this very easy to read book. It covers an amazing range of topics and touches on well known literature, characters and events of the time. I loved it. It finished sort of abruptly, though, giving me hope that perhaps there is another volume to come,

A fun look into Victorian life and times! The book was interesting and engaging , and just a good easy read.

I have always been interested in the lives of the Victorians and this book showed me so much information about the era in a large variety of topics and locations.

If you've seen my other review, you'll know that I am absolutely singing the praises of this publishing group, and of this author! This book was a delightful trip through time, bursting at the seams with facts and stories. I've not stopped talking about this book since I finished reading it, so much so that even my friends are clamoring to pick up a copy. I think anyone with interest in this topic will have a wonderful time reading through this, and I commend the author for the depth of research that shines through.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

⭐️=3 | 😘=2 | 🤬=1 | ⚔️=3 | 14+

summary: a bunch of info on the Victorian era—fashion, education, crime, food, et cetera et cetera

thoughts: this is so weird. it’s like an extended Wikipedia article on everything (EVERYTHING) Victorian, except there’s a million misspellings and grammar issues and punctuation nonsense—enough that I feel it necessary to point them out, even though it is an ARC. I just expected something remotely focused on a specific area and it wasn’t at all?? but it’s still interesting content, however sloppily and briefly delivered.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I read a lot of history books, and i loved that this one had a different format than other ones ive read! The "chapters" were easy to read based on the fact that they were titled based on different sections of the book/different topics.

I found this book to be easy to read, unlike some other history books that i find i get lost in.

5 stars for me!