Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture

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This study of the household goods of Victorian America reveals the character, conflicts and tensions within the Victorian world Considering specific furnishings and styles, it discusses the relationship of these objects to class and gender structure and to their place in Victorian ritual. New Download eBook Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture author Kenneth L. Ames – kino-fada.fr I m loathe to admit that I really enjoyed reading hundreds of pages on Victorian hat racks and armchairs, but here we are.As I ve noted in other reviews, I have a long and deep interest in material culture the physical artifacts produced by the way we live, which often are the only surviving evidence of our everyday history In college nearly fifty years ago, as a trainee historian but also for its cheap entertainment value, I got in the habit of attending estate sales even though I couldn t afford to buy anything , just to prowl around the leftovers of some family s earlier generations Pocket watches and fobs As I ve noted in other reviews, I have a long and deep interest in material culture the physical artifacts produced by the way we live, which often are the only surviving evidence of our everyday history In college nearly fifty years ago, as a trainee historian but also for its cheap entertainment value, I got in the habit of attending estate sales even though I couldn t afford to buy anything , just to prowl around the leftovers of some family s earlier generations Pocket watches and fobs, oddball kitchen implements and mysterious silverware, uncomfortable parlor furniture I found it all fascinating, and often puzzling What did they do with that Ames is a noted essayist on such things and is known for his original perspective on domestic archaeology from the 19th century, not o...In Kenneth Ames Death in the Dining Room Other Tales of Victorian Culture, the author identifies and discusses five classes of little studied objects, five groups of ordinary things of Victorian daily life, to learn something about Victorian Americans sensory, emotional, and cognitive experiences While each chapter branches out to discuss a variety of related objects, the five primary forms of material culture Ames examines include hallstands, sideboards, framed needlework mottoes, pa In Kenneth Ames Death in the Dining Room Other Tales of Victorian Culture, the author identifies and discusses five classes of little studied objects, five groups of ordinary things of Victoria...This book is awesome, I don t care that it is big and takes up too much space, I m keeping it Ames has so many great illustrations in here to accompany his writing on the Victorians and their mind sets and the material possessions they cared about Ames sticks to a simple layout here, he discusses five elements of Victorian culture hallways and their furniture, dining room decoration, mottoes, parlor organs, and posture in chairs He does get a little too psychological sometimes, delving into This book is awesome, I don t care that it is big and takes up too much space, I m keeping it Ames has so many great illustrations in here to accompany his writing on the Victorians and their mind sets and the material po...Loving microhistories and object semantics, this seemed like the perfect choice for a chapter at a time read I ve rarely had a book be so interesting and sleep inducing at the same time The subject is lively enough, so it may be the author s style, or it may just be me The book is divided into chapters specific to Victorian furniture the sideboard, hall stand, card receiver, etc and what it culturally communicated or may have communicated at the time My favorite chapters concerned the Loving microhistories and object semantics, this seemed like the perfect choice for a chapter at a time read I ve rarely had a book be so interesting and sleep inducing at the same time The subject is lively enough, so it may be the author s style, or it may just be me The book is divided into chapters specific to Victorian furniture the sideboard, hall stand, card receiver, etc and what it culturally communicated or may have communicated at the time My favorite chapters concerned the parlor organ and the perforated cardboard motto fad, although the Kenneth Ames does stretch feminist theory a bit much to equate cardboard as masculi...It didn t answer the question that prompted me to open the book in the first place although to be fair, it was not a question the author promised to answer in any way but the book sucked me in anyway It contains a fascinating discussion that ...An excellent material culture history I suspect I will change this to four stars in time The writing is plain, often to the point of seeming amateurish, but Ames ideas and analysis prove that he is a true scholar.Full of all kinds of little tidbits that help me explain all things victorian in my building at work.Read Conc.Very interesting read, especially the captions which are very revealing.

Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture
  • English
  • 05 November 2018
  • Paperback
  • 280 pages
  • 1566393337
  • Kenneth L. Ames
  • Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture