Manners & Morals of Victorian America

by Wayne Erbsen

Manners & Morals of Victorian America is your gateway to the fashionable world of Victorian America. It draws from the wealth of late 19th and early twentieth etiquette books. With over 400 historic engravings and illustrations, the book details virtually every aspect of Victorian life, including the proper conduct for courtship and wooing, duties of husbands and wives, how to deal with a rejected suitor and even carriage and motoring manners. 7"x10," 180 pages.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Victorian, Research, Writing

180 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 2009

Reviews

[Brad Butturff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't exactly what I expected when I read it. This is essentially a collection of excerpts from various Victorian periodicals and books. Now the information provided is quite valid and the sources used are excellent but I was hoping for a bit more analysis. Now that being said this book provides some wonderful views on various aspects of Victorian life in America. One very good example is the section explaining the prevalent attitude on why men should get married; it sounded more like a help wanted advertisement for a house maid.

What this book is best at is displaying the public attitudes of Victorian America. It shows what you would have read, what you would have been taught, what you would have been lead to believe. The sources are sited in the bibliography but not footnoted as such. Though the book is well illustrated with period lithographs and written in easy to read style I would not recommend this as a scholarly analysis of the manners and morals of Victorian America. Would I recommend it as a fun read about the curious manners of that time? Quite definitely.

Regardless, this book has found a place on my shelves. I find myself pulling the book down from time to time to ponder what I would have done if I was a Victorian man facing a particular situation. As much as I am fascinated with the era this book does make me a bit more glad that I wasn't born in the curious era.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wayne Erbsen combed through thousands of etiquette and manners books of the nineteenth century to produce this compilation. Broken down into several subjects, he has made it both easy to read and given his readers a better knowledge of what men, women and children were expected to do in polite society. This was an enjoyable book to read and has helped give the reader a better sense of what it was like to grow up during the Victorian age.

[Vonze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious and thought-provoking collection of quotes from the Victorian Era.

Leeches are good for you!

Too much kissing in public!

Don't forget to raise your hat!

No buffoonery!

I adore the Victorian era and their (now) old-timey thoughts and phrases. This kept me entertained and laughing for days.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book. Some of what is included in here is a little silly, I suppose. Yet, there are some things that I actually did like the sound of. It was basically an entertaining read.

[Tess · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some interesting stuff in here, and would be a fun thing to skim for anyone interested in Victorian / Edwardian-era advice. I wouldn't think of it as authoritative or necessarily even all manners and morals-related (lots of it is romance and personal-life-related, very "Dear Sugar"), but really just a lot of tiny clips from various advice columns and booklets. Curiosities and conversation starters if anything.

There are a few golden gems of wisdom amongst the rough, with plenty of stuff that transcends that time period and its mainstream culture, like "The lover who assumes a domineering attitude over his future wife invites her to escape from his tyranny while yet she may, and if she be wise she will escape, for the chances are that he will be worse as a husband than as a lover." I'll drink to that! And "Home is the place where one is treated best and grumbles most." Harsh truths!

And there's plenty of silly stuff too. Some of what was excerpted seemed to just have been selected for shock value ("can you BELIEVE those crazy Victorians lol?" energy), so it's a little cringe to anyone who's genuinely interested in the roots and history of modern etiquette. The introduction is baffling, because he explains that he took a predecessor of this book and rewrote it with proper citations, but then the citations are very bare-bones and hard to match up.

Anyway, as impulse buys at museum gift shops go, it was worth a look and a welcome addition to my weird little growing etiquette library.

[Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't quite what I was expecting. (I'm sure that's on me for not doing enough research before buying it.) I thought it would include an in-depth discussion on the topics. Instead it was a collection of quotes from various Victorian publications with their advice for how to interact in polite society (i.e. use black in because only vulgar people use colored ink; kissing the bride is falling out of favor; women should not pick up their skirts with both hands) with no context other than the date of publication.
Still, for what it was it was cute and fun to read.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an collection on anecdotes from 19th century publications, arranged by subject without analysis or attention to chronology. However, I appreciated that the author dated each excerpt and included a bibliography (neglected in other similar publications), making the book more useful as a resource.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of dos and don'ts of late 19th century and early 20th century manners. It is divided into different topics and then simply contains like a list of how men and women of the time period should and should not act. It was entertaining to read and compare to today's etiquette.

[Catherine Siemann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Fine if you're looking for fluff about how strange our 19th century ancestors were, you'll enjoy this. Less useful as a reference.

[Stella Furlong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely worth all the time and money. Amazing book!

[E.H. Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like Victorian novels, movies, or anything else about the era, like the beautiful clothes or antiquated customs, you’ve probably chanced upon this thin, blue book with darling little illustrations on the cover. It’s a cute, light read of tidbits of Victorian-era trivia. From the well-known—men used to cover mud puddles with their coats so that women wouldn’t dirty their shoes—to the unknown—pipes were often referred to as “the bachelor’s wife”—the authors have researched and put together a montage, from original magazines and advertisements published at the time.

This isn’t a linear non-fiction, but if you don’t mind a book comprised of 3-4 sentences pieced together from outside sources, you’ll probably think it’s pretty cute and informative.

http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/manner...

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Considering this is a collection of quotations from period books, all the author needed to do was arrange them in an entertaining way. So, he chose alphabetically. You know, so that the nearly identical advice to be found regarding Husbands, Courtship, Wives, Marriage, Weddings, etc, could be spread through several discontinuous sections.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like the Victorian period this is an amusing read. There is no central plot or focus of the book, rather it is a compilation of various snippets from magazines and popular literature of the time detailing how one should behave in polite society. I quite enjoyed it but I would recommend not sitting down to read it straight through, it won't keep your attention that long.

[Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, manners and morals of Victorian America. Some of the advice and direction in this book is quite humorous, some of it is offensive, and some is very good. Jokes and illustrations are included. The bibliography is a little disappointing because it is incomplete and does not cite sources directly to the quotations, but all in all I found it a charming book.

[Amanda Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for research - love the way that it's just quotes from all of those sources.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive and funny.

[Sandy]

I loved to find out some of the things you were supposed to do.