Customer Reviews

Victorian London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day (Contributions in Women's Studies)

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In this detailed and wonderfully informative book Yaffa Draznin has reconstructed not only a day in the life, but most of the days in the lives of her historically overlooked subjects. In the course of her research on this book she found that the housewives she had become so curious to learn more about had "left no records at all." Contemporary Victorian literature, Draznin posits, could not be relied upon to provide the hard data she sought. She combined information culled from contemporary magazines, "domestic manuals," and the history of commerce with her knowledge of Victoriana and her "deep familiarity with housewifery" to create her models.

Draznin's readable, jargon-free, and to-the-point chapters are each able to stand alone. "Greater London in 1875: A Resident's View," provides a portrait of London that is deep and thorough. You can smell it and hear it: prodigious amounts of manure on the streets, "the deafening noise of traffic," and the astonishingly poor air quality that motivated urban dwellers to support the establishment of suburban towns. Many moved out of the city.

Family health, contraception, the bearing, rearing and education of children, the managing of servants (protocols were carefully spelled out and, it was assumed, observed), choosing where to live, decorating the home, buying, using, and maintaining the considerable gadgetry (especially the sewing machine) of modern life  all were the housewife's concern. In addition there were spiritual and moral issues that she was expected to manage. Volunteering one's time for helping or nurturing activities was higly socially acceptable, and widely practiced. In addition there are budgets and ledger entries, menus for meals plus teas, and black-and-white illustrations.

"The Matron as Her Own Person: Satisfying Personal Needs within and Outside the Home," details the considerable industry that grew to serve the needs of the housewife in possession of more free time than ever. Magazines, lending libraries located in bookstores, (for there were few public libraries, and of them, few were "free" ), visiting, sewing, card-playing, and socializing filled what free time she had. Draznin's high praise, though, is reserved for an activity that was "restful and pleasant," one that middle-class housewives "engaged in with lady friends in quiet and elegant surroundings that offered many amenities." Draznin asks rhetorically, "What did she do?" and then answers, "She went shopping." This reliance on stores combined with the troublesome (to the consumer) quirks of British shopping -- no prices marked on goods, no advertising, snobbishness, and little price competition -- eventually engendered considerable changes in consuming throughout Britain.

This is a delightful, accessible, and well-researched book that will interest students of Victoriana, urban history, and women's history. Young readers will be pleased, too. There is a lengthy bibliography and a good index. Completely worthwhile.

I've always been interested in the history of the home, and especially that of ordinary people. One period that has the most documentation available is that of the Victorian era -- the nineteenth century in Europe and America -- when a rising affluence and increased technology combined to create a booming middle class. And the person who decided just how that new middle class home looked and was used was not necessarily the man of the family, but rather his wife.

Yaffa Claire Draznin explores this rather unusual world in her book, London's Middle-Class Housewife: What She Did All Day, and provides a good leaping off point for starting to research this topic. Divided up into three parts, the book looks into the background of the Middle Class Housewife, life in London and its suburbs and how the MCMW (Draznin's abbrieviation for the Housewife) interacted with it, and finally, the end of the Victorian period, and how the MCMW was an instrument in that change.

Part I: The MCMW's Background, 1850-1875
The MCMW (Middle Class Married Woman) -- just who was she? She was probably the child of a shopkeeper, or bureaucrat, poorly educated by modern standards, and expected to defer to her parents and her husband when decisions were made. She was most likely to be homeschooled, and learned what she could of housekeeping from her mother, but by the time she was married, was expected to know enough mathematics to keep household accounts, be able to read and write, and know enough about cooking and sewing to provide meals and be able to do some basic sewing and mending. While heavier work would be shifted onto the shoulders (and back) of the one servant she was likely to have, the maid-of-all-work, she was expected to know enough to supervise and make sure that all was kept in order. Draznin also touches on what sort of man her husband would be, how many children they might have together, and about what the income would be, and finally, what the MCMW would look like and her clothing.

Part II: The Reality: Life in Greater London, 1875-1900
From what I could gather from this book, what seperated the MCMW from the working classes was that she had a servant to help, but that did not mean that she was completely free of drudgery either -- especially laundry. This was a complicated, labour intensive chore that tired me out just from reading about it. There was also cleaning, from sweeping and scrubbing that had to be done, to purchasing food, making meals, seeing that her children were fed, clothed, washed and schooled. One of the more interesting aspects of life in London was the mail service -- mail would be delivered up to twelve times a day, and was regarded as very effiecient. There were servants to manage -- from the maid, to perhaps a cook and nurserymaid, and all of these people had to be hired, and sometimes fired, or replaced when they quit. Money had to be looked after. But there were matters outside of the home as well -- her children's schooling, family holidays, social and religious obligations and finally, discussing personal needs. One of the big surprises that I found in this was the rise of the Shopper -- where shopping moved to being not just taking care of basic needs, but where the MCMW moved into the world of the consumer, and where shopping could be entertainment and a social activity with her friends.

Part III: The End of the Century: Conclusion
Intermingled with all of this was the relentless change that was moving the Victorian world towards the modern one that we know today. Increased need for skilled labour in the workplace was putting a squeeze on that eternal problem for the MCMW -- factory and office work was very tempting to the maid-of-all-work, and certainly less burdensome and more profitable. While the number of available servants were dwindling, more labour saving devices were appearing, saving some time. Too, as families aged, the MCMW and her spouse were having to make changes and adapt to one another, as they had hopefully, advanced in income and status.

Each chapter has extensive footnotes attached, and provide an excellent source for further research in each topic. There is also a very useful appendix that goes into understanding the British system of money at the time, explaining what the pound, shilling and pence were. Finishing up are a bibliography and Index.

I found this to be a fascinating read, and I was learning quite a bit about a time and place that keeps getting skipped over. The writing is crisp, and while each chapter is rather sparse in the details, it's still a good read.

My biggest disappointment in the book was the real lack of illustrations, I was hoping that there would be more to show the reader all of the various objects and perhaps even a floorplan of the typical home. Instead what I got was several photographs of buildings, and some drawings that were done by a modern artist. Pretty, but several of them are extremely clumsy, with skewed perspectives, and ultimately, not very useful.

Draznin's writing style is very readable, and a touch tongue-in-cheek in spots. While this is a small book, under 200 pages, it is a good starter for anyone interested in this topic, and especially in women's studies. What this book gave me in particular was the backbreaking amount of labour that went into keeping a home, and managing her family's care and wellbeing that the MCMW went through -- all the while trying to fit in with what was expected of her in the world around her. The fact that all of this was happening just over a century ago is what makes this so intriguing -- and we're still having to cope with the same unrealistic demands and expectations today.

For anyone who watched the PBS series _Manor House_ and _1900 House,_ this is a real eye-opener of a book. For further reading I would suggest Judith Flanders' Inside the Victorian Home and Kathryn Hughes' _The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton_ -- which was also turned into a television programme, _The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton._

Four stars over all, and actually closer to five, but the lack of illustrations and some depth is what knocked this book down for me a bit. Recommended.

expensive disappointment. the entire book was conjecture about what the mchw might have done because there is no information and we are not sure. almost sixty dollars for the equivalent of an over referenced term paper that says nothing...just like high school. i wish i could get my money back.