⇒ PDF 1700 Scenes from London Life Maureen Waller 9781568582160 Books

1700 Scenes from London Life Maureen Waller 9781568582160 Books

Download As PDF : 1700 Scenes from London Life Maureen Waller 9781568582160 Books

1700 Scenes from London Life Maureen Waller 9781568582160 Books

This book is fantastic. It tells you stuff about everyday life in London at the turn of the 18th century that I spent hours and hours learning by reading old books in the Clayton genealogical library in Houston. If you working in this period, the book is invaluable. It is concise, yet covers the minutea of everyday life. Miss Manners of that day is quoted with instructions that if several eat from a large communal bowl, you should not dip your spoon in a second time without wiping it off; and to not fill your mouth with so much food, your cheeks swell like a pair of Scotch bagpipes. [Yes, they said Scotch, and not Scottish.] What is fun is that this era opened up much of modern day life and that turn of the century saw the introduction of the "toast," thick cream [eggnog], punch, coffee and tea. Coffee houses came into existence, and the varieties of specialty shops that could be accommodated as people began to make enough money to buy commodities they had previously bartered for or made themselves. Unlike in Dickens' time, the 18th century issued in a time of great prosperity in England.


Tags : 1700: Scenes from London Life [Maureen Waller] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV>Maureen Waller captures the grit and excitement of London in 1700. Combining investigative reporting with popular history,Maureen Waller,1700: Scenes from London Life,Basic Books,1568582161,QX-093-16-1593511,Modern - 18th Century,London (England);History;17th century.,London (England);Social life and customs;17th century.,17th century,Europe - Great Britain - General,GENERAL,HISTORY Europe General,HISTORY Europe Great Britain General,HISTORY Modern 18th Century,History,History - General History,History Europe Great Britain,HistoryWorld,History: World,London (England),Non-Fiction,Social life and customs

1700 Scenes from London Life Maureen Waller 9781568582160 Books Reviews

First, I'm really glad I'm not living in London circa 1700. Maureen Waller's in-depth examination of the everyday life of a Londoner at the turn of the 18th century is chilling. Not only was life for the vast majority of the city's citizens nasty, brutish and short, London itself was filthy, foul-smelling and crime-ridden.

And what's really frightening is that other Englishmen and women flocked to the capital because life there was better than where they were from.

On top of all that, Waller's maybe-too-meticulously researched book relies heavily on primary sources from 1700 -- which means the description of life in London at that time comes from those who were educated, and thus presumably living significantly better than those who couldn't read or write.

But all that said, this wasn't a very good read. Waller quotes extensively from her many primary sources, but all they do is repeat a point she's already made. For example, she'll describe the primitive health care, and follow up with a long passage saying the same thing. In short, many of the 332 pages are superfluous, and "1700 Scenes from London Life" would have been a lot better if it were 232 pages.

For someone looking to write a college paper on marriage or some other aspect of British life in 1700, this book would be invaluable; for someone looking for a bit of entertaining history, there's just too much of some not-very-good things and a whole lot of repetitive material.
This is a wonderful book and I had a great time reading it. It is full of many interesting tidbits on many topics, such as marriage, childbirth, death, fashion, food and drink, amusements, coffeehouses and taverns, etc. The book is beautifully written and holds your attention from start to finish. Here is the first paragraph from the opening chapter, concerning marriage "Thirty-four years after the Great Fire, the worshippers at St. Paul's still gaze up at open sky. Within a decade, Wren's completed dome will cast a shadow over the grim Fleet Prison, the ominous building where debtors count out their days. At the foot of Ludgate Hill lies the Fleet Ditch, wide enough for a coal barge to sail north to Holborn, if it can tackle the stinking sewage, discarded guts and offal, drowned puppies and dead cats sliding down its muddy channel towards the Thames. Passing the brawling concert of fishwives and stall-holders gathered around the Fleet Bridge, we come to a warren of alleyways known as the Rules of the Fleet. Here, forty marriage-houses do a busy trade." Every chapter is chock-full of interesting things and I guarantee that no matter how many books you may have read on English history you will still learn many things and be thoroughly entertained. In the chapter on disease, for example, you learn a little about sanitary conditions and the state of medical knowledge. Here are two quotes"Contaminated food and drinking water caused frequent outbursts of bacterial stomach infections. Flies traveled from faeces to food. It did not occur to those preparing or handling food to wash their hands after defecating." "The eminent physician Sir Thomas Sydenham prescribed his own highly popular remedy (for dysentery) two ounces of strained opium, one ounce of saffron, one drachm each of cinnamon and cloves in a pint of canary wine." In the chapter on amusements you find out that the common people entertained themselves by attending public executions and by going to Bethlehem Hospital (popularly known as Bedlam) to watch the antics of the insane. When coffeehouses became all the rage after coffee was introduced by a London merchant who had been trading in the Ottoman Empire, women became jealous of all the time their husbands spent in these establishments, and also suspected the vile black brew made their men impotent. "Never did men wear greater breeches," they complained, "or carry less in them of any mettle whatsoever." I had a blast reading this book and I can't recommend it highly enough!
If you ever wondered why people fled England for America this is all you need to know. London was as filthy, inhumane and depressing as you could get. A realistic and gritty view of how a common Londoner would have lived at this time. Just getting clothes was a challenge. And health care was a joke. The city was just too crowded. If you ever wondered why Pocahontas died at 21 after going to London wonder no more. People fled London for America and brought there filth and disease with them. Should be a must read.
Very informative, not written like a boring historical book. Kept my interest and learned a lot of interesting facts.
----"1700-Scenes from London Life" provides an excellent, cursory examination of life in the world's greatest metropolis, three hundred years ago. From treatments for typhoid fever (crushed snails), to a fairly detailed inventory of a tenement hovel, the author takes the reader on a brief, sweeping sojourn of a city rapidly in transition, where corpulent excess rubbed elbows with crushing, unimaginable poverty. Very well done.
This book is fantastic. It tells you stuff about everyday life in London at the turn of the 18th century that I spent hours and hours learning by reading old books in the Clayton genealogical library in Houston. If you working in this period, the book is invaluable. It is concise, yet covers the minutea of everyday life. Miss Manners of that day is quoted with instructions that if several eat from a large communal bowl, you should not dip your spoon in a second time without wiping it off; and to not fill your mouth with so much food, your cheeks swell like a pair of Scotch bagpipes. [Yes, they said Scotch, and not Scottish.] What is fun is that this era opened up much of modern day life and that turn of the century saw the introduction of the "toast," thick cream [eggnog], punch, coffee and tea. Coffee houses came into existence, and the varieties of specialty shops that could be accommodated as people began to make enough money to buy commodities they had previously bartered for or made themselves. Unlike in Dickens' time, the 18th century issued in a time of great prosperity in England.