Fun in Victorian Times
I took a break from writing tonight 
by doing online research. One thing that is wonderful about researching Victorian times is the availability of primary resources. Instead of reading about what Victorian women cooked or how they amused themselves, you can go online and read Godey’s Ladies Book. I spent an hour tonight reading an 1855 magazine, and I feel completely comfortable about this research.
There was sheet music for ladies to play on the piano, patterns for embroidery and clothing, poetry, humorous stories (I read one about an English housekeeper who had a drunkard for a maid–it actually was pretty funny, particularly her dialogue…I may have to steal this as a plot point), and recipes. They called them receipts back then. What I thought was fascinating was the information about poisons. Yes, not only did they have recipes for stewed pears, but in case your family happened to ingest arsenic, opium, or some other poison, they listed the antidotes. Who knew this was what Victorian ladies read? How fun. Here’s a link if you want to read more. Keep in mind, you’ll need to wait until a little square pops up in the lower right corner. Click on it, and it will make the page larger so you can actually read it. 
The main website was http://cit.uvm.edu:6336/dynaweb/godey/ in case anyone wants to read further. Great information! 
Michelle posted in Writing @ 7:33 pm | Viewed 768 times
katie Says:
Gotta love a good antidote!
Too funny!
Margery Says:
Love, love, love research. It’s a good thing I gave up writing historicals. LOL on the antidotes.
kacey Says:
Don’t you just sometimes get so lost in the research that you almost forget to write?? Fun. Fun.
Suzanne Says:
That’s one of the fun things about writing historicals–the research. I read a book for medieval housewives once, kinda like yours for Victorian women. It’s neat to see how they did things, and thank God I was born in modern times!!
Vicki Says:
For me, it seems like the more I learn about 1920s Hollywood, the more I want to know. I just wish there were more sites with digitized magazines and such.
But you know how much I love doing research.
Jill Shalvis Says:
Interesting stuff! Almost made me yearn to write a historical instead of contemps …