I took a week off while we got the kids settled into virtual school, but now I’m back, this week with a nonfiction favorite, Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners, by Therese O’Neill. This book gives you a glimpse into the weird, the uncomfortable, the outrageous, and the downright gross side of daily life for a Victorian woman. The tongue-in-cheek style is easy to read and laugh-out-loud funny. The book is full of images and quotes from primary sources, with lots of reference material if you want to go further down the rabbit hole. I’ve read some of the sources used in this book while researching for my own books. The Victorian “experts” on sex, nutrition, medicine, etc. had some really wild ideas, and this book gives you a great taste of that. There’s also a second book called Ungovernable about Victorian child-rearing.
You can buy a copy here.
You might like this book if you like:
-fun, accessible history books
-weird and wacky facts
-humorous writing style
-the not-so-glamorous side of Victorian life
