What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

Title: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew
Author: Daniel Pool
Touchstone, 1993

For all those strange people out there who enjoy a big, fat 19th century tomb of a book, this is an essential companion. Because when you read books written in a different era, you will inevitably miss out on the finer nuances because you yourself did not inhabit the same world and time as the characters. This supremely entertaining book, however, will bring you as close as it is possible to come (without becoming a full-time scholar) to your fictional friends. You will find out why dancing is such a big deal in Austen's novels, that a dinner party contained quite a bit more than our measly three courses, why young ladies in novels moan such a lot about becoming governesses and much, much more. Keep it at your bedside table as a reference and return to the victorian era again, and again, and again.