Journey through an English home and the unkind old England with Worsley and Coughty

MOSCOW. Sinbad Publishing House published a fascinating book by Lucy Worsley, The English House. Intimate story. "

Interest in English literature is a constant over which neither time nor the change of political system have power. Few, even in childhood, escaped meeting Dickens, Conan Doyle, Wilde, Stevenson. After all, it was impossible to do without Galsworthy, Maugham, Austin, Bronte and many other authors. Amid the meaningless editorials in Pravda and the nagging writings about the valiant builders of communism, the ups and downs of medieval and modern English seemed like a sip of cool water on a hot day. They lacked only nuances, details that give a complete picture of the everyday life of the inhabitants of a distant island state. The book by the historian, writer, and TV presenter Lucy Worsley allows this gap to be filled. An excellent visual addition to it is the BBC documentary mini-series “If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home”, which was released in 2011 along with the book and was a huge success with the audience.

For several centuries, the British house, its filling, the functionality of the premises in it underwent significant changes. Worsley allows you to trace the evolution of objects used in everyday life by rich people and commoners, find out how, where and with whom they slept, how to maintain hygiene, what devices they used, what they were deprived of, and what experience they could share with those living. Find out how bedrooms, kitchens and other rooms have changed over time, losing some functions and acquiring others. The absence of Mr. Darcy, David Copperfield and the Foresight family in the book does not stop reading it with unflagging interest from cover to cover.

A thorough study of the English house can be found not only in Worsley’s books (and she has enough of them). You can pay attention to the "Brief History of Life and Private Life" by Bill Bryson and restrained in style, but extremely informative "Victorian London. City Life”Liza Picard. To compensate for the deficit of negative information will allow the "Bad Old England" Catherine Couti. Here you are Jack the Ripper, slums, prisons, cholera, vices of all stripes: prostitution, sadomasochistic entertainment, funny transvestites. Unadorned everyday life: with stench on the premises and on the streets, corporal punishment, executions, torture, work houses and “white slavery”. You can find out all about Victorian ladies in Coughty’s equally detailed work, Women of Victorian England: From Ideal to Vice.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru