Another amazing non-fic pick! This book is so interesting, easy to read, and funny that I am burning through it like wildfire.
Therese O'Neill provides the 21st century female time-traveler with a guide to the Victorian age. Not the Victorian age we've been shown in Bronte novels and Gone with the Wind, with all the romance and the beautiful gowns and ivory-skinned ladies perfecting the art of fainting. . .the Victorian age we are never shown.
Louisa Mae Alcott never told us about what the March family did during "that time of the month", even though there were five women living under one roof and it must have been a big deal (Six women if you count Hannah). Scarlett O'Hara never had to use the outhouse, even after she ate all that barbecue at Twelve Oaks.
This book answers all those types of questions. I knew that women wore pantalettes under their layers of skirts. . .but I never really thought that maybe those pantalettes were designed without the seam in the middle. . .the opening allowed women to use the toilet.
Doctors' manuals from the time period advise women on how they should healthfully menstruate. . .apparently, those doctors thought women were able to control that process?
And I guess babies were never conceived on holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas back then, because women were warned that engaging in marital relations after eating a large meal would trigger a stroke. In fact, a disappointing wedding night could lead a woman to an early grave, according to Dr. Virgil Primrose English.
I think this book would be a great addition to a highschool collection; teenage girls often struggle with their feelings about their bodies, and the changes of puberty, and questions about sex, so a book like this would provide some humor while also providing a context and teaching them a little history to boot.
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