Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two 'dirty centuries'? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit?
All these questions - and more - are answered in this juicy, truly intimate history of the home.
Through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, Lucy Worsley explores what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes.
Author(s): Lucy Worsley
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 370
Title Page
Epigraph
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Part One – An Intimate History of the Bedroom
1 A History of the Bed
2 Being Born
3 Was Breast Always Best?
4 Knickers
5 Praying, Reading and Keeping Secrets
6 Sick
7 Sex
8 Conception
9 Deviant Sex and Masturbation
10 Venereal Disease
11 What to Wear in Bed
12 Sleeping with the King
13 A History of Sleep
14 Murdered in Our Beds
Part Two – An Intimate History of the Bathroom
15 The Fall of Bathing …
16 … and Its Resurrection
17 The Bathroom is Born
18 Don’t Forget to Brush Your Teeth
19 An Apology for Beards
20 War Paint
21 The Whole World Is a Toilet
22 The Wonders of Sewers
23 A History of Toilet Paper
24 Menstruation
Part Three – An Intimate History of the Living Room
25 Sitting Comfortably
26 A History of Clutter
27 Heat and Light
28 ‘Speaking’ to the Servants
29 So Who Vacuums Your Living Room?
30 Sitting Up Straight
31 A Bright, Polite Smile
32 Kissing and Courtship
33 Dying (and Attending Your Own Funeral)
Part Four – An Intimate History of the Kitchen
34 Why Men Used to Do the Cooking
35 The Kitchen Comes in from the Cold
36 The Pungent Power of Pongs
37 Stirring and Scrubbing and Breaking Your Back
38 Cool
39 Peckish
40 Trying New Foods (and Drinks, and Drugs)
41 Chewing, Swallowing, Burping and Farting
42 Raising Your Elbow
43 The Political Consequences of Sauces
44 Were They All Drunk All the Time?
45 The Wretched Washing-Up
Conclusion: What We Can Learn from the Past
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index
Plates
About the Author
By the Same Author
Copyright
