Susan in NC’s Reviews > How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life > Status Update

“As increasing numbers of Victorians, at least among the middle classes, began their day with soap and warm water, body odour took on a new dimension, one that divided the nation. William Thackeray, in his 1850 novel Pendennis, coined the phrase ‘the great unwashed’. It was quickly adopted to describe the working class and to distance their social betters from them.”