Behind Closed Doors

In this brilliant work, Amanda Vickery unlocks the homes of Georgian England to examine the lives of the people who lived there. Writing with her customary wit and verve, she introduces us to men and women from all walks of life: gentlewoman Anne Dormer in her stately Oxfordshire mansion, bachelor clerk and future novelist Anthony Trollope in his dreary London lodgings, genteel spinsters keeping up appearances in two rooms with yellow wallpaper, servants with only a locking box to call their own.

Vickery makes ingenious use of upholsterer’s ledgers, burglary trials, and other unusual sources to reveal the roles of house and home in economic survival, social success, and political representation during the long eighteenth century. Through the spread of formal visiting, the proliferation of affordable ornamental furnishings, the commercial celebration of feminine artistry at home, and the currency of the language of taste, even modest homes turned into arenas of social campaign and exhibition.

In aceasta lucrare stralucitoare, Amanda Vickery deblocheaza casele Angliei georgiene pentru a examina vietile oamenilor care locuiau acolo. Scriind cu inteligenta si verva ei obisnuite, ea ne prezinta barbati si femei din toate categoriile de viata: domnisoara Anne Dormer in conacul ei conac din Oxfordshire, functionar burlac si viitorul romancier Anthony Trollope in locuintele sale trista din Londra, spintere blande care pastreaza aparitiile in doua camere cu tapet galben, servitori cu doar o cutie de blocare pe care sa le poata numi. Vickery foloseste ingenios registrele tapiterilor, procesele de efractie si alte surse neobisnuite pentru a dezvalui rolul casei si al casei in supravietuirea economica, succesul social si reprezentarea politica in timpul lungul secol al XVIII-lea.