As someone that loves the period this covers, I enjoyed it for what it was. Plenty of interesting bits, and a fun tone

My only complaint about this book is that I wish it would have a more academic tone rather than jokey- but nevertheless I learned a lot and would read the author again.

Thank you Netgalley for my review copy.

I applied for this review copy as I was intrigued by Stephen Fry's Victorian Secrets podcast. I wanted to find out more about the 'fairer' sex in Victorian times. I found they were not so 'fair' as men wanted them to be. In fact, quite the opposite and rightly so.
These women were the generation to push back against the norms in the working classes and beyond (albeit secretly of course) but they showed their independence.
This book is well written with lots of stories and facts to raise your eyebrows more than once.

A really interesting, and easy to read history book.

(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)

RATING: 4 STARS

I really enjoyed this guide book for Victorian Ladies. Oneill uses facts and humour to showcase the "rules" that society put on women in the Victorian era. While at university I took a course on the Victorian era and it was one of my favourite courses. It was such a contrary time with science and religion. Not to run off with another topic....I love looking at guides that show how a particular sex is supposed to act during a particular time. It gives us a much clearer look at the history of the time. Oneill definitely brings her wit and feminist insight to this volume. While this is a reference book and I did take my time reading it - I did read big chunks at a time. At the final thought I came away with...we may not have everything yet, we definitely have a better time at it.

I still remember how crushing it was the first time someone felt it would be <s>fun</s> <I>for my own good</i> to pop my Disney–and–Robin Hood–blown bubble, and let me to know that those marvelous castles I was always admiring, those perfect settings for all my dreams, were actually massively drafty, stinkingly unsanitary holes. To my every "Yeah, but – " there was another quelling response. No, really – living in a castle in period was horrible (and living in a castle now would be the very definition of "money pit").

So now, why not? Let's eviscerate all those glowing visions of the Edwardian and Regency and Victorian eras. It's fun!

And – while it is surprisingly difficult to apply this new knowledge to Jane Austen and Upstairs Downstairs and so on … it <I>is</i> fun.

I was a little surprised that the author bounced not only through time but through space; it was as though she wanted to make sure the worst example available was used for any given situation, and in a lot of cases that was in more recently settled America rather than what I automatically expected: England. It was a little disconcerting at times to find I wasn't reading about where I thought I was reading about – I do wish she had made that clearer.

The author's voice – that of a snarky, just-you-wait-till-you-hear-this guide, sympathetic to the reader's dismay but also a bit gleeful about popping the bubble – was, according to some reviews, annoying to some, but I had a good time with it. There were times I needed that <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bm-cDUyCUAAKd1U.png">"oh, my sweet summer child"</a> presence – "they did what? With what? How? Wha -?"

We live in a world in which things are discussed which in earlier times were taboo. Verboten. Distasteful. Tacky. Maybe it's my age – but I don't think so, because some of my coworkers are in the same bracket. Maybe it's the way I was brought up. Maybe I'm just a prude – I really don't know. But on a daily basis my coworkers shock and horrify me with the way they talk about … everything. Loudly. Their sex lives. In detail. Their urinary misadventures. Their hot flashes – there's a general alert with every one from every woman. Their complaints about their children or husbands or boyfriends. Things which in my little insular world ought to be private, personal, nobody else's business. You see, I don't want to know that one coworker with a bad cold had bladder slippage every time she coughed – but when she said this another coworker chimed in – loudly and with detail – about how the same thing happened to her. I don't want to know that this latter experience was every time she threw up with that last bout of whatever illness – I really, really don't. This is in an office with nine people, not all her friends, and one a man. There is not enough brain bleach in the world to eradicate the details I've heard about various and sundry from various and sundry. Want to hear more? I've been here three years. I've got more. Reams.

I'm not even going to talk about those Charmin commercials with the disgusting cartoon bears. One of my aunts used to watch the evolution of tv, aghast, and commented that next thing you knew they'd be modeling tampons in commercials. We're almost there.

So … when did this happen? About a hundred years ago, no one would have dreamed of talking about these things except MAYBE in extreme privacy with her mother. And, yes, there is very much something to be said about more information being public about sex and health and sanitation; some of the things that doctors got away with as described in this book can't (or almost can't) happen now, and it's surely better for women to know what they're in for on their wedding nights or when menopause hits, or to know what they're not the only person something happens to, etc. – more knowledge is <I>almost</i> always better (as opposed to Too Much Information). But … There has to be a middle ground somewhere between utter vulgarity and Victorian frigidity, where the information necessary for health and comfort is widely available without being wallowed in. Maybe we'll get there.

Or maybe I'm just a prude.

Anyhow. This stuff is great to know, especially for writers (or time travelers)… For readers, maybe not so much. I've always figured that if you're sitting there wondering while you read how and where a book's main character is going to relieve herself in a given situation, you're not paying enough attention to the book. Like one of those people who can't resist pointing out every continuity error in a movie or tv show – that wine glass had three quarters of an inch more wine in it when they shot from that other angle! – you need to just relax and not worry about it until and unless it becomes relevant.

I think, in the end, that I'm glad I've been schooled – while mores may have slipped badly, we've come a long way in other words, baby - but I'm also disgruntled that the more I know the less appealing a trip through time in the TARDIS becomes. I don't think there's a time period in history I much care to see firsthand anymore. Ah well – there's always the rest of the universe.

If you know something unsavory about the Madillon Cluster or Shallanna, <I>don't tell me.</i>

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

I really loved this book. The author has written a witty fun history of what life was really like during the Victorian times for women. There is a lot of unmentionable stuff here. I enjoyed the humor. The book is well researched. It is a quick easy read. The text is accompanied with lots of period illustrations and Victorian Trade Cards. Anyone interested in women's history or the Victorian Era will enjoy this book.

This book will ruin historical romance for you.

And while I'm all for enlightened sexuality, reading about Victorian hygiene practices and theories makes even the suggestion of oral sex in a historical romance a bit nauseating. For all of our sakes, I'm NOT going to quote the passage from historical texts on how one should maintain cleanliness of their genitals (and the state therein).

The book is told (in second person, directed at a 21st century reader who finds themselves back in time) with wit in the face of some rather unsettling and disturbing beliefs about behavior and health.

Not a full overview on Victorian life, but instead, as the title promises, looking at "sex, marriage, and manners" that a woman of at least some means would face.

Romantic era my hiney! (5 stars)

This is quite possibly one of the most fascinating and funny books I've read about women in history. I always knew the Victorians were a strange lot by current standards but woah. You couldn't pay me to deal with the hygiene issues and garments/torture devices let alone the patriarchal living. Nope. Super nope.

Oneill shares this knowledge with enough humor to make it digestible for all. Post-read I've got even more respect for the women who survived the era. Because even though society is still trying to tell us ladies to be ashamed of our bodies and desires, at least in this era we get to choose to wear corsets or not, we have indoor plumbing, boxed wine and Netflix.

Not appropriate for high school, but an interesting read

This book was witty and informative. As I watch the PBS show Victoria it looks like a beautiful time to live. There are pretty dresses, servants and lots of time to read, right? As Therese Oneill shows in her book this is not actually the case. Things are much harder than movies make them seem. The clothes are dirty, hygiene isn't a priority and medical treatment is not recommended. I laughed a lot throughout this book. Her little comments and photo captions are always great. The cover stands out and is one of the best parts of the book. I was constantly telling my friends about what I was reading. This is an insightful book about a romanticized time period. Highly recommended!

Oh my gosh - hilarious to read, would be a perfect gift for a specific person (not all would find this funny and entertaining, I'm sure).