Over 400 pages of definitions, facts, and glosses for the most alien aspects of 1800s England. And there are a lot of them! The nineteenth century saw the birth of much of what we think of as unremarkable necessities of civilization: a police force, basic schooling for all children, a national mail system...This is truly a fascinating read, and one I highly recommend for anyone reading regency or Victorian-era literature.

An excellent guide to all things 19th-Century British: labor, love, land, titles, customs, coinage, churches, commerce, etc. Invaluable glossary too.

Good for general reading, but the author mixes the Victorian and the Regency eras together -- that's a 100 year spread. If you're looking for research, look elsewhere.

Austen, Dickens, and other 19th century English authors' fans will want to buy this book. There are so many nuances to things from the Chancery Court to why Lady Catherine de Bourgh is called by her first name but Lady Dedlock isn't. A keeper!

As a readers companion, I found this book so helpful and interesting! It has brought a new level of understanding to so many of my favorite books!

I never wrote a review for this as it's one of those things I've had for nearly twenty-five years. But I recently had occasion to check a point on debtors' prisons, and I was struck again by how fun and useful this book is, especially if one is, unlike myself, neither an English major or normally a big reader of 19th century English literature but who might be venturing into something by Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, the Brontë sisters, Hardy, or Wilke Collins (all favorites of mine), novelists who, as a group, span the century. Pool is an entertaining writer who provides tons of information, often with humor, and also provides a useful background of some of the big parliamentary legislation of the century such as the Reform Act of 1932 and the two Women's Property Acts which are important in an understanding of the novels. Even for television viewers who avidly watched Downton Abbey, Upstairs, Downstairs, or either of the Forsyte Saga series, their enjoyment may be enhanced by a greater knowledge of the social customs and attitudes Pool illuminates in this book, many of which persisted well into the 20th century.

So yes, I finally have managed to find a very gently used (read almost new and unblemished) copy of Daniel Pool’s 1993 What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England at my local independent bookshop in late January and immediately decided to purchase it, since the asked for price was only five dollars Canadian, including all required sales taxes.

For well, I have indeed always wanted to own a personal copy of What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England ever since I read my roommate’s copy in the summer of 1998 during my final year as a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, but I was also not willing to pay a lot of money. And thus, the five dollar price tag for What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England totally did fit the proverbial bill so to speak, and I very quickly grabbed and bought the book (since I was both ecstatic to finally locate a copy of What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England in a price range I could totally and absolutely live with and was also more than somewhat worried that my fiancé’s daughter would perhapsspot and grab the book if I did not).

Now you are probably wondering why since I have wanted to own a copy of What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England for my personal library since 1998, I have obviously also been pretty much adamant about only really being willing to pay a pretty low price (and with my absolute limit being between fifteen to twenty dollars, and yes, this would also have to include any and all shipping costs if I found What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England for purchase online on ABE Books and other similar sites).

And for me, the main reason for not being willing to shell out a lot of money for What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England, this totally and utterly is that while when I borrowed my roommate’s copy of What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England, I very much enjoyed perusing Daniel Pool’s presented contents, I found his textual descriptions of what daily life was generally like in 19th century England both fun and educational, and yes, that What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England equally totally accomplished what I was hoping for in the summer of 1998, with the book functioning basically as a very necessary and required break or more to the point reading therapy whilst I was struggling to finish the last two chapters of my PhD dissertation (and thus needing a book like What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England, requiring a non fiction research oriented text that was both entertaining and also still sufficiently educational and as such not too unserious, since I was in dissertation mode and while in need for some reading rest and relaxation also still requiring themes and contents sufficiently academic in scope and as such not too trivial, but also trivial enough to be fun and not too intellectually taxing and/or potentially confusing), I did and still do find What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England rather not academically solid and sufficiently intellectually stimulating enough, in other words a bit too unserious, a bit too trivial to warrant a high price and to also warrant recommending What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England for serious academic reading and research (as there are indeed some annoying errors present and that Daniel Pool also seems to sometimes mesh the Regency and the Victorian eras together into a mildly annoying mess).

This book describes 19th century life using short extracts from novels as examples. This is a great idea but I don't think that I'm the person the writer is aiming to instruct. He (Daniel Pool) assumes either that the reader has read the major works of Dickens ,Thomas Hardy and George Elliot, the Palliser and Barsetshire series by Trollope , all of Jane Austen and the Bronte Sisters, as well as Vanity Fair by Thackery , Or that they do not mind the plots of these books being partially revealed to them. Pool never actually recounts an entire plot but certain events such as character deaths, or significant events in the novels are glancingly mentioned in a way that would spoil a first reading of the novel.
What about if you have read all these books? well then the problem is that the reader is likely to already know a lot of the details of daily life in the 19th century. Therefore the ideal reader is someone who has no interest in reading 19th Century novels but has a fevered curiosity to read an overview of life and society in the 19th Century. For them I would recommend How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman as I think it gives more detail.

I'm not sure what to make of this. I found a mistake that suggested the author was depending on the wrong sources, which made me wonder about other possible inaccuracies, which in turn ruined my enjoyment of the book (and since I was reading it as research, I was doubly disappointed). A good starting point, but it might be a good idea to check anything you really need to know with another source.

Good background information. Seemed like it focused more on the time periods of Charles Dickens & Thomas Hardy, but maybe that's because I've already read a lot about Jane Austen's time and didn't really come across anything new.

I skipped large sections of this book, it is a good book for reference but I didn't like reading it from cover to cover like a novel. Sections about geography or titles didn't particularly interest me so I just skimmed through them. I do think I will see about buying a copy for reference.

This is a light yet fairly comprehensive guide to the many things mentioned in 19th century English literature, so you can keep track of which duties where had by which servant and how much you could buy on a widow's annuity. This is one of those books I enjoyed because it reminded me that I already picked up most of this stuff through many years of exposure. I found it slightly odd, though, that the examples given were all from the same pool -- Austen and Dickens, mostly, and a little Trollope and some Thackery, which is all good, but if you are the kind of person who would pick up a book just to read lists of vicarages, you've probably read a lot of the more obscure 19th century stuff as well.

Grade: B+
Recommended: It pretty much does what it advertises.