"Inside the Victorian House is itself laid out like a house, following the story of daily life from room to room, from childbirth in the master bedroom through the scullery and kitchen - cleaning, dining, entertaining - on upwards, ending in the sickroom, and death. Using a collage of diaries, letters, advice books, magazines, and paintings, Flanders shows how social history is built up out of tiny domestic details. She also draws domestic details from the writings of the familiar personalities of the age: John Ruskin, Mrs. Beeton, Beatrix Potter, Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, and Charles Darwin, who, when contemplating marriage, set out the pros and cons of married and single life in facing columns. She does not neglect those on the fringes of history - E. M. Forster's aunt, forgotten women novelists, an a wide range of women who were simply going about their daily lives: the daughters of stockbrokers, schoolteachers, and doctors; the wives of journalists, academics, and illustrators."--BOOK JACKET.