Customer Reviews

Restoration London: From Poverty to Pets, from Medicine to Magic, from Slang to Sex, from Wallpaper to Women's Rights

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a published novelist completing a trilogy set in 17th century London and when I first heard of this book, I said, looking at my groaning six foot bookcase which contains only English history, "No, I do not need this book! Heaven help me if I buy another social history book!" I was so wrong. Nothing is better to understand daily 17th century life. I am almost finished my second reading. She writes with the wit and energy and wry humor of the period. Bravo!

Marvelous! If you are a social history fan, a Restoration bug, a 17th Century nut, or you just love learning through insightful and witty prose, this is a book you will get lost in. It's not unlike "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew"--but more gracefully written, with a fine wry view of the era. Pepys would have loved it! And so would Charles II. Don't delay--it's worth the bucks. Does anyone know anything about author Liza Picard? She's delightful.

While it's obvious that Ms. Picard, as she herself is careful to explain, is not a historian, she has accomplished something quite professional in this book. "Restoration London" aims at the social aspect of the times, and dives into the details of everyday life that really tell us what it was like to be there. What did people clean their teeth with? What chances did you have of surviving surgery? What happened to people too old to work? What expressions and words appeared in everyday speech around that time? Ms. Picard tells us all this, and more. The book is entertaining and written in a sort of smartly ironical style - but it's also serious, and you can see that a lot of research has gone into it. I strongly recommend it to everyone.

I enjoyed this dipping in to this book ever morning on my short ride into work, untill one day, when I left it behind on an underground train. Liz Picacd was great at answering those questions that you didn't even know you wanted to ask about life in a large city 350 years ago. Things like 'how did you wash your clothes?', 'were did you go for a good time?' and 'what was the food like?. Altogther a 'must read' for all those interested in the small, but important facts in history, that give us a idea of what eveylife was really like back then.