Victorian Blogging
Book Choice for June 2021: The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, Audiobook narrated by S.Frye
Book Choice for August 2021: How To Be A Victorian, R. Goodman
Not very much has been happening lately, my days have been perhaps almost too much of the same thing over and over. For the last month, more than anything, I have wanted easy entertainment. I have wanted a place for my mind to go after all the thesis-thinking. I watched all the Gilmore Girls series (I had been doing that in the evenings for months) and while it was fine to know what really happened in that time-capsule show of the early 2000s, for the purposes of my own personal nostalgia, I didn’t really gain anything from doing that. I want entertainment for sure—but I don’t just want to have this empty feeling after, of “well, that was that.”
Well! I want to tell you, that I pine no longer. I have found the most thrilling balance between Entertainment and Art/Learning. And he is—- Sherlock Holmes!
Really, it has been glorious. I will tell you the facts. At the end of 2020, I used my monthly audible credit for the Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes narrated (SUPERBLY-nothing better could be wished) by Stephen Frye. I actually bought it out of guilt, because I once had access to a pirated copy of this audiobook, and I enjoyed it, several years ago—but I must have been listening with half an ear and my mind elsewhere. To be absorbed, to go along with Holmes, you have to give him real attention.
Most of May and June I shambled about, looking for something to get stuck into reading— (I still really “want” to read history plays by Shakespeare—and yet, right now they are just too hard). Too dry to be the kind of opium I need to get me through the hours I am not actively writing my thesis. There was a lull, basically, before I remembered that I had this Sherlock Holmes audiobook. And now, with three of the short-story collections and two novels listened to, avidly, and–(I tested myself this morning on a scrap of paper–I could still recall the plots of 18 out of 22 cases)—I have decided to put Holmes away, for awhile. I don’t want to spoil the fun by overdoing it, and I may need him to be clever and amusing later!
Very much a mood-reader, I found in August that I was still stuck in the Victorian period. So much so that I impulsively bought a new paperback copy of “How to Be a Victorian” by Ruth Goodman which is a “dawn to dusk” very detailed account of all the tasks and activities a person would have done daily in the Victorian period, with excurses into the history of these activities.
It was just the ticket, at the time. I am updating this blog much later, but I have fond memories of rising relatively early on August mornings and going to the comfiest chair in the living room and reading this book for about an hour while drinking coffee—it was wonderful how it worked out, that serendipitous morning hobby. I found it quite calming before I started my day, but alas (as a Victorian person likely uttered around noon) this habit did not last. At the time I thought it would be lovely to start every day with some book I find easy and enjoyable—but such morning-reading was apparently just a trick of this particular book. Not all books are the same, they strike in such different ways. Some are comforting, some require effort, even to listen to, some can be read before bed with an Ambien-like effect, others never before sleep.
I am getting extremely picky.
That’s probably a good thing, because [insert broken record] there is only so much time in life.
To quote Karolina Zebrowska’s ‘Victorian Girl Fall’ video “Memento Mori Ladies!!!“
Anyway.
I shall give you a brief overview of this book. Not so much of it was new to me or incredibly surprising, but it is extremely thoroughly written (and yet still very readable) and very well presented. Particularly memorable is the extensive description of the true extent of Hunger during the Victorian period, thoughtfully provided after the topic of Breakfast was fully discussed–but really, a major takeaway from this book is how hungry and cold and overworked the vast majority of people always were, ALWAYS; day in, day out, and the very real impact it had on their health and ability to reach the next day. It’s brutal to think about, but super necessary to understand.
This discussion occurs almost 200 pages into the book however, and unfortunately, not everyone may be able to get through the extensive description of personal grooming in the Victorian period that precedes it. Some will be interested in the “dressing” section, as the above quote from K. Zebrowska shows, fashion-history channels have really been having a moment on youtube for the past couple years–but the extensive descriptions of men’s shaving kits, diapering babies and rigging up one’s sanitary garments that precede it might cause some reader-attrition.
The section on “the main business of the day” covers many topics, most notable for me was mining, such incredibly brutal work–this topic was reinforced for me as I was, at the time, attempting to listen to “Black Diamonds” a very odd audiobook which is meant to be the genealogy of one of England’s richest but least well-known families, which contained extensive, brutal descriptions of how they got their money, which was of course via coal-mining. That was the most worthwhile part of that book, which I found I just could not finish, for several reasons: one, that it contains one of the worst racist myths about North American Native peoples, regarding cannibalism, which I still cannot believe made it into a book published this century, totally without comment or any type of reflection; (it was really so offensive you cannot believe it); and the fact that it was just boringly written. (A succession dispute “subplot” ran over more than three chapters before I had to call it quits). Anyway, back to “How to Be a Victorian,” the mining parts were brutal, the child labour was brutal, women’s household work of cooking awful porridge, always being in some phase of pregnancy and laundry day was brutal.
However, the topic of laundry was extensively analyzed, with gratitude-producing results, I think.
I’ve always wondered why I love doing laundry so much—it could be because my mother also loves it, and always has kept everyone in the house from “her” precious machines–maybe her unwillingness to “share” the laundry provided it with a cachet of glamour, my sister likewise revels in sorting and folding. Sometimes I like to just stand and watch it start to swish around in the drum. It may be that I have a genetic memory of the bone-crushing, Sisyphean task that was attempting to keep the clothes and house of a family of six to ten people presentable—and now I regard myself as in heaven, just having to pour in soap and leave my humming metal servant to it.
This book should give one many such moments: I was particularly conscious of HOW GREAT A HOT SHOWER REALLY FEELS while I was reading it.
I also very much enjoyed the chapter on leisure, and it made me think about how truly lazy I can be, writing a bit in the day and not wanting to do ANYTHING at night. When the industrial-production work week was cut down in Victorian England from an average of 12 hours a day SIX days a week to 10 hours a day with “only” a half-day on Saturday, the Victorian working classes wondered HOW they would fill all the extra time, and so took up sports and other hobbies. Good work you vigorous, starved people; I’m exhausted just reading about it. However, it was so interesting that I felt that I might someday read “Consuming Passions” which is a full book-length study on Victorian leisure pastimes.
Another very thought-provoking point was made in the latter part of the book, when discussing women’s embroidery. Goodman made the point that the level of skill at needlework that would now be considered absolutely professional level was much more widespread during the Victorian period, and that such mastery then would have hardly been remarked upon. It’s really interesting the things we have lost, that we have generally no awareness that we have lost. I have read a lot of stories by L.M. Montgomery who wrote c. 1905-1940 but who remembered the late Victorian period herself and how women never left home to meet friends without some “work” to occupy their hands. It was a point of pride, but also an absolute necessity before the mass-production of garments. I have another book “Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years” which I have read, and which impresses one similarly. Before the 17th century women walked around hand-spinning thread while they walked, wherever they went, while doing other tasks, raising children and calling cows. My degree of leisure and the idleness of my hands shocks me sometimes.
I also enjoyed final chapter of this book, basically what Victorians did in the bedroom, or thought was okay sexually–it’s interesting that we do have some information about this, because at certain points during the Victorian period people were less prudish than one might think; sex was perhaps less tied to religion than it became in some parts of the 20th century. Sex was regarded as a medical topic and some doctors were able to write frankly about it, treating it as just one of several other health-related topics of life, possibly due to its connection to fertility/the family. This rather surprised me, and it was a very thoughtful, nuanced part of the book.
As well, I have since learned that “heterosexuality” was not the monolith that many of us have been convinced that it was, in the Victorian period and earlier. In fact, the term was only coined near the end of the Victorian period. Before that… people may not have been so worried about who carried on with whom, before the term came to name and separate (I should say that I learned this on the incredibly interesting youtube video called “Heterofatalism” by Tara Mooknie). One last standout anecdote from Goodman’s book however: there was a working class woman who, having seen what her own mother’s life had been like raising 10 children, frankly admitted to someone who asked, that she managed her family’s size by mending. Basically, she made sure that she was darning and sewing at night, and busy doing this until at least the time her husband fell asleep; and it worked.
In all, a very interesting book which is a fantastic resources, readable, and lays quite a few myths to rest. You will probably not idealize the Victorian period after you read it. All I idealize is an image, and the silence, of sitting quietly at a round, thick-clothed table as the evening closes in, reading by the light of a glowing glass lamp– and this is perhaps an experience that I could still have in my own life. It’s also very easy to idealize, and fall into day-dreams about, Sherlock Holmes’ comfortable life, of enormous prepared breakfasts, simple revolver-toting, and endless adventure and freedom.
It’s been a good time-travel summer.
PS. Of course, however, during this Victorian enthusiasm I went overboard, buying “The Age of Decadence: A History of Britain 1880-1914” which turned out to be, upon arrival, EXTREMELY HUGE, like 900 pages, and very dense. I am not currently certain if I will ever get to it, but it does cover the late Victorian (Sherlock Holmes’ Victorian) period and all of the Edwardian period, so—-maybe someday when this phase hits once again.