Amanda Vickery è una storica britannica il cui lavoro si concentra sulla storia moderna, con una particolare enfasi sul periodo georgiano in Inghilterra. La sua ricerca approfondisce la storia sociale, la letteratura, la storia del romanticismo e della casa, la politica, il diritto e la criminalità, evidenziando costantemente gli studi sulle donne e il femminismo. Attraverso le sue pubblicazioni, offre ai lettori una vasta conoscenza e analisi acute che illuminano le vite e le esperienze delle donne nel passato. Il suo approccio scopre aspetti nascosti della società, offrendo nuove prospettive sugli eventi storici e sulle dinamiche sociali.
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.