Rating: 
Summary: Enriches understanding of Regency and Victorian authors
Review: This was a very enjoyable book. The background it provides helps me to understand the social contexts and the way of life of the folks Austen and Dickens (and their many fellow writers) wrote about. The book is a series of small essays that offer insight into a specific topic. These essays are grouped into helpful sections such as The Public World, The Private World, and The Grim World. They are all entertaining and help those of us who know little of those times to get a handle on some basic notions. The one caution I would offer is that a century is a long time. Fashion, technology, politics, and everything else changes many times over the decades. However, these essays seem focused on those things that would offer the most confusion to the modern reader. Just be sure to keep a close regard on the time period the specific essay is covering and match that to the period not only of the author but the period that Dickens or Austen or whomever is writing about. This is an lively, entertaining, and informative book. But it is not foolproof. Enjoy it responsibly and you will benefit from this book every time you read a Regency or Victorian author.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful companion for the books you love
Review: WHAT JANE AUSTEN ATE AND CHARLES DICKENS KNEW: FROM FOX HUNTING TO WHIST -- THE FACTS OF DAILY LIFE IN 19TH-CENTURY ENGLAND by Daniel Pool is a very enjoyable read about the hundreds of details of daily life that informed the novels from Jane Austen to Thomas Hardy. It was more engaging than I thought it would be, and now that I know it better, I will keep it handy for when I read any works by Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot and William Thackeray. Pool uses examples from novels as the rule (with occasional actual events as illustrative material) so that those familiar with these works can see what these events meant to the author and original readers of such novels as Mansfield Park, The Eustace Diamonds, Oliver Twist, Vanity Fair, Jude the Obscure and Middlemarch.
The book is divided into two parts: the first of 255 pages, is the basic text, divided into sections by topic (such as "Public Life," "Private Life" and "The Grim World"), which is the section you can sit down to read, and then say to your significant other, "Wow! Did you know that there were more than 200 offenses in early 19th century Britain punishable by death, including stealing from a shop?" and, "Women alternated which side they rode side-saddle on to avoid developing an overly enhanced buttock!" The last 135 pages of the book comprise a glossary of terms like "ague" and "ha-ha" (which I looked up while reading Mansfield Park recently-- it is a sunken fence used as an invisible landscaping device).
The first section (the text sections) is easy and interesting to read, and I loved having examples from Austen and Middlemarch used, because I've read most of Austen and that one George Eliot novel. The best thing, I think, about the book is that it provides a wonderful context for 19th-century British fiction and makes me want to read Hardy, Trollope, and even Dickens, in whom I have not had much interest before. Also, I enjoyed learning the origins of terms common in our language and culture, like what "the bar" originally was in the structure of English law, and that the term "pub" comes from "public house." I also found some of the class strictures fascinating, such as how it was considered absurd to have footmen who were not the same height, and how a host and hostess would have to line all their guests up for dinner and pair them off according to rank. This, obviously, was a minefield of possible offenses and social disasters for those doing the pairings!
The fault I have with the book is minor, and that is that because it is written, it seems, primarily as a reference book, even the text sections can be a little repetitive, mentioning some fact in several places because it is relevant in more than one context. Also, it just kind of, bang!, starts with a section on money and, bang!, ends with a section on funerals, with no transitional or ending text, aside from a brief, spearate introduction by the author at the beginning. I think some might fault the author for trying to cover an entire century (think of the differences in culture and daily routine from 1901 and 1999), but I felt this was not a weakness: with the use of the novels' range in publication, he is able to make distinctions and give a gloss of the history and culture of the century that is useful for the his purposes.
But I definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes the above-mentioned authors and novels or to anyone who would like to read them. I think this is a worthwhile companion, and, again, it makes me even more interested in reading the fiction of the time.
Rating: 
Summary: A great resource
Review: Wow! What a great book! I devoured it in a day, highlighting everything that will definitely come in useful to me later! If you're an author looking for resources for the nineteenth century this is a great book!
| 
