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Indlæser... Behind the Scenes: Domestic Arrangements in Historic Housesaf Christina Hardyment
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Behind the Scenes is a fascinating exploration of the history of housekeeping through the well-preserved properties of Britain's National Trust.In today's world of fully stocked supermarkets and astonishing appliances, it is hard to imagine how people managed to run a household in the days before gas, electricity, central heating, refrigeration, and running water. How did they cook meals and launder clothes? And how did they keep their houses clean?Christina Hardyment answers these and other question as she reconstructs the ingenious domestic methods used in great mansions, medieval castles, Victorian townhouses, and farmhouse cottages in days gone by. The result is an informative, amusing history of the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry, as well as of the bakehouse and brewery, dairy and dovecote, lamp room and larder.A wealth of color photographs, many taken specially for this book, combine with archival documents and accounts to bring Hardyment's descriptions to life. For tourists, a handy gazetteer provides a guide to the properties. No library descriptions found. |
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Of course, this is the same author who fails time and time again to define obscure domestic terms and sprinkles the dates of her references with a stingy, arbitrary hand. Without footnotes or anything more precise than a general bibliography—and given Hardyment's penchant for jumping from century to century in the same paragraph—piecing together a chronology of domestic developments was like putting my brain through a laundry mangle.
And the descriptions of said domestic developments? They made little to no sense until the fourth or fifth reading, and most of the time, they didn't match up with any of the chosen photographs or illustrations. And if you thought those disconnected photographs and illustrations would have helpful captions, expanding upon the text—well. Why create helpful captions when you can cut and paste a vague sentence from a nearby paragraph instead?
And then there's the missing commas and incorrect page references....
If you decide to read this book, you might consider seeking a solid chronological grounding of basic home types first (something like Rybczynski's Home: A Short History of an Idea would work), and reading chapters 1, 10, and 11, with their explanation of household infrastructure, before any of the others ought to help with the brain-mangling frustration. Even so, a soothing pot of tea—or shot of bourbon—would not go amiss.
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