Very interesting especially since I read a lot of books from this era. This book filled in a lot of blank spots in my knowledge about the nineteenth century.

2019 Review
What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool is an excellent reference for all things 19th century British. For the most part, I read this cover-to-cover (skimming only the sections that gave too much detail about stuff I wasn't interested in) but I don't recommend that unless you really find this interesting. Pool covers pretty much everything from clothes to servants to money to government to modes of transportation. If you're reading the 19th century British classics and stymied about some of the details, this book could certainly help. Also, if you are aspiring to write (or currently writing) a romance novel set in the 1800s in the UK, this book will be very helpful. I can think of one novelist (Tessa Dare) whose novels would be helped greatly if she skimmed this. She'd probably realize that pancakes weren't really a breakfast option at that time. No IHOPS in England.

There's a large glossary included and that's worth skimming as well. Very interesting.

Older Review
Very interesting. A lot of information about the Victorian age in England.

A wealth of information written in an engaging way. I will definitely be consulting this book again when I need to refresh myself of particulars.

A good, factual book, it is one I want to keep on my bookshelf to turn to when I don’t know what something is.

This was more encyclopedic than I had expected, but it was still very interesting and very helpful in establishing a context for the novels of the 1800s.

To start off with this was a gift from a friend. That being said.

What Jane Austen Ate is good book that gives bit and pieces of life in 19 century England with their confusing currency, etiquette , fashion, law and how life was different between nobility and the working poor. Great starting point if you looking books about life in 19 century England.

I was excited to read What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, a non-fiction trip into nineteenth century England once I saw the table of contents. Everything I need to know for better understanding of classic books is found here. It (includes and) goes beyond the typical topics such as social customs, clothing, calling cards, and housing to answer my curiosity on currency and the calendar, rules of Whist and card games, “Crime and Punishment,” “Sex,” occupations, “The Workhouse,” disease, doctors, and death to name a few. There is so much useful and interesting information in this book that it would be a wonderful resource to keep on your shelf. And the vast number of literary references (everything from Jane Austen to the Bronte’s to Trollope) there is sure to be at least some books mentioned that are known to novice and seasoned readers alike. Additionally, the one hundred- and thirty-five-page glossary is quite thorough. Plus, it has an extensive bibliography and index.

Unfortunately, despite this amazing collection of information, the book reads like a textbook and a dry one at that. While I loved the book references, there were so many, and many not only unknown to me but I wasn’t sure what the reference was referring to (whether it was a title, author or a character in the book), that I found it interrupted my reading. While the topics were of interest to me, I ended up skimming sections. The illustrations/maps/charts were either too small to read the content or too dark to appreciate the details. However, as a strict nineteenth century England reference book, it is a great resource to have on hand.

i love shit like this. nothing pleases me more than to know the proper table setting for a victorian outdoor tea (though you wouldn't know it to watch me eat). regardless of that, sadly, this book (which i read immediately before it) did not help me understand what the damned peasants in "the return of the native" were saying, and, then, spark notes ruined that work for me, as detailed in my review, thereof. hardy might have been proud of that sentence, tho'. but that's all to the side. if you want to address the proper maid (should such an eventuality, darkly, fall upon you), this is your a-z.

I was expecting more from this book. I knew it wasn't a scholarly treatise, but it bothered me that there was so little acknowledgement of the sources for the pronouncements here. It was also annoying that the author would sometimes reveal key details of the fictional works he referred to, along the lines of this kind of thing: "Prisons were quite grim places at the time as we see in So and So's great novel where the main character dies alone and peniless in prison." Uh, guess I won't bother reading that one!

Still, I guess this might not be a bad thing to have on the shelf as you're reading, if you want to look up something about marriage or schooling or the lives of vicars. But even then, I'm not sure how accurate everything here is.

A fun and informative book, but occasionally a little disjointed. Daniel Pool, an American lawyer by training, a lover of British novels by avocation, really digs into the the customs, mores and behaviors of Nineteenth Century Englanders. He illustrates his discussion of elaborate balls, courting rituals, stylish dress, transportation, education, royalty and aristocracy, city and country life and so much more by referencing characters from period novels -- not only Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, but also Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and Thackeray's VANITY FAIR among others. Great fun for students of history and lovers of literature as well.

And that's not all--the first portion of the book is followed by 120 pages of glossary, with an eye to the archaic or obsolescent features of life that have modern readers scratching their heads: why "public schools" mean almost the opposite of what they do in the USA, horse-and-carriage terminology, military slang, those perplexing coinages of pre-decimal currency, gone-forever job titles, the menace of "entailment" and much more.

I am a huge fan of Jane Austen and I enjoy reading the works of Charles Dickens. Emma, would be my favorite works of Jane Austen. I know most people enjoy and would say Pride and Prejudice, but Emma is more up my alley. As far as the works of Charles Dickens, I would have to say A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations and David Copperfield.

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew is a very informative book on the lives of those living in England in the 19th. The author, Daniel Pool though, makes the information interesting and I love how he intertwines the books of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. The book is divided into two parts. The first part tells about different topics in that time period (Society, Money, Government, The Church of England, Crime &Punishment, Transportation, Food and so on).

The second part of the book is a glossary of different words in the book that might need more explaining such as Orange Woman. Orange Woman/Women are the poorest of London street sellers. They were mostly young girls who sold oranges on the streets of London for money.

One area in the first part of the book that I really enjoyed reading about being Society (Etiquette, Rules of Dancing, Calling Cards and such). People could not just come and go as they pleased, to family and friends. The upper class wanted to screen I guess you could say who they wanted and did not want to see. A calling card would serve as a way for people to let others know they were in the area and wanted to call upon. When you called upon people you were given certain times and you would not stay longer than needed for the visit.

Another topic in the book that I enjoyed learning more about was Crime & Punishment. You did not have to do too severe a crime to be hanged. Take if someone was to steal someone else’s sheep, shoplifting, what have you, they could be hanged. When people were hanged their bodies were either used by surgeons for their anatomy class or the body would be chained and be hanging off the ground at a crossroad to serve as a deterrent to any passersby. They did not have many police officers and such so they would use the public displays as a way of telling people this could happen to you if you are not careful. The chapter goes on to talk about the way criminals would be tried and the way the hanging procedures would take place. Death for someone is a sport to people, we are afraid of it when it comes to ourselves but when it is someone else’s death it’s entertainment. Crowds would gather to watch the criminal getting hanged, we are curious about death I guess.

Marriage back in the 19th century was handled in a completely different way from today’s approaches. Women and men who were under the age of 21 could not be married unless they had their parents’ permission. Many men and woman due to this rule would elope if their parents did not respect their desires to marry. Also, if they wanted to be married at an earlier age. A lady and a gentleman never got married quick back then either. They had a format to follow such as courtship, talk of the lady’s dowry (men looked for companionship as well as finical security), social class of the lady’s background, Marriage settlement, the wedding would be announced in church (Church of England) three months from than would be the wedding. However, if you were really wealthy, you could pay for a special license that allowed you to get married when and where you wished.

All in all I very interesting and really eye-opening of a book. The 19th Century is not a favorite period of mine, but it is interesting none the less. I recommend this book to all those who enjoy Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Also, to anyone who wants to learn how things have changed over the years and the formats people followed back then.

Very helpful guide to have at your side when wondering about 19th century British currency or the proper way to address an Earl. It should be understood though that this text is very much constructed to be a reference book and I don't think is particularly intended to be read start-to-finish.