The Victorian Domestic Servant by Trevor May: A Review

This book from Shire Classics describes the 19th-Century servant class in Great Britain in satisfying detail. Combined with another book I purchased at the National Portrait Gallery of portraits taken of the servant class, my DVDs of Gosford Park and Upstairs/Downstairs, and my recent viewing of Edwardian House and Regency House, I think that I [...]

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, the Insight Edition: A Review

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, the Insight Edition from Bethany House is a lovely annotated version of this classic novel. The intended audience is obviously a young Christian girl or someone who is reading the novel for the first time. The notes sit in the margins; they are not too obtrusive or overly verbose, [...]

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Book Giveaway of Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

Gentle Readers: Don’t forget to join my book giveaway of Laurie Viera Rigler’s paperback version of Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict. This is a rather fun contest on Jane Austen Today. You have until mid day on May 8th. Please click on link to enter! My review sits here.

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Caroline Norton and a Woman’s Legal Rights

Until the mid 1800s, married women in England had no legal rights. By law a husband could prevent his wife from seeing their children. He also had control over all her income, including any earnings she might make. Caroline Norton (1808-1877), who was married to an abusive man and who had been barred from seeing [...]

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The Cravat: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999)

Gentle Reader, Those of us who have read The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy know that Sir Percy Blakeney pretends to be an effete dandy. Unbeknownst to his wife, who cannot conceal her disappointment in her foppish husband, he smuggles people out of  France during the French Revolution and away from danger. Sir Percy, [...]

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Mamaluke or Marie Sleeves on Regency Dresses?

I love puffed and gathered sleeves on regency gowns. The Probert Encyclopedia defines a mamaluke sleeve as “a long full sleeve partitioned into five sections, each section being drawn and seamed to fit around the arm.” Romantic Fashion Plates defines Marie Sleeves as full to the wrist but tied at intervals. Which source accurately names the [...]

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Jane Austen Quotes

My book contest for Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen is closed, and the winner, Lesley-Ann Mcleod was announced. I was left with a legacy of Jane Austen quotes that I would like to share with my readers. The comments were outstanding and I loved every one of the quotes. For those who would [...]

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Mansfield Park and Mummies, or Whist With a Twist: A Review (of Sorts)

Whilst Mansfield Park is overrun by mummies and Fanny Price is being seduced by a princely corpse who was embalmed and buried 2,000 years ago, we join a select party playing whist at the Assembly Rooms in Bath. Sir Walter Elliot, Mrs. Elton, Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Jennings are in deep discussion about the ghoulish [...]

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Small Island: A Review (PBS Masterpiece Classic)

I had never heard of the book Small Island or author Andrea Levy until PBS scheduled the film as the last presentation for Masterpiece Classic this season. The story follows two couples, one from London, England and the other from Jamaica, whose lives intersect at crucial moments. Against the backdrop of World War II and [...]

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Could a Year Without a Summer Happen Again?

Three years ago I wrote about the summer of 1816 in England, which was widely regarded as the year without a summer. Six months before, a volcanic eruption in Indonesia ejected over 19 million cubic miles of volcanic ash in the atmosphere. This ash traveled in the upper atmosphere, blocking the sun. This week, an [...]

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The Fashion of the Day or Time Past and Time Present 1807

During the 18th and early 19th century, social satire prints were engraved and sold separately in print shops. By 1750, the term ‘caricature’ was applied to almost any comic cartoon or satiric illustration. The ‘golden age’ when James Gillray (1756-1815), Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) and George Cruikshank (1792-1878) were active, occurred between 1780 and 1830. Most [...]

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Seen Over the Ether: Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet

David Shipman wrote in his 1996 obituary for Greer Garson: On her return to Hollywood she was forced into the studio’s chosen image – a New York sophisticate, jagged with sophistication in huge hats – squabbling and making up with Robert Taylor in Remember? But her Mrs Chipping was uppermost in executive minds when casting [...]

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