Amanda Vickery is een Brits historica wiens werk zich richt op de moderne geschiedenis, met een bijzondere nadruk op de Georgische periode in Engeland. Haar onderzoek duikt in sociale geschiedenis, literatuur, de geschiedenis van romantiek en het huiselijke leven, politiek, recht en misdaad, waarbij ze consequent aandacht besteedt aan vrouwenstudies en feminisme. Via haar publicaties biedt ze lezers uitgebreide kennis en scherpe analyses die de levens en ervaringen van vrouwen uit het verleden belichten. Haar benadering onthult verborgen aspecten van de samenleving en biedt nieuwe perspectieven op historische gebeurtenissen en sociale dynamiek.
Exploring Georgian England's homes, the author reveals the lives of diverse individuals, including gentlewoman Anne Dormer in her Oxfordshire mansion, bachelor clerk Anthony Trollope in London, and servants with minimal possessions.
Based on a study of the letters, diaries and account books of over 100 women from commercial, professional and gentry families, mainly in provincial England, this book provides an account of the lives of genteel women in Georgian times.
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.