At Home: A Short History of Private Life
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Bill Bryson's entertaining and illuminating book about the history of the way we live - complete, unabridged and read by the authorBill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business. This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, considering how the ordinary things in life came to be.Along the way he researched the history of anything and everything: from architecture to electricity, from food preservation to epidemics, from the spice trade to the Eiffel Tower, from crinolines to toilets. And he discovered that there is a huge amount of history, interest and excitement - and even a little danger - lurking in the corners of every home... The Barnes & Noble Review The whole book is like this, and you simply have to surrender to it. And that, I am happy to say, is easy enough, for Bryson really is a virtuoso of deft sketches of the enormous, mostly unintended, consequences of alterations in material life. In addition his wit is as engaging as ever, and his appreciation of human foible and earnest nonsense -- from Thomas Edison's concrete piano to the mystery of fish knives -- remains undimmed.
Introduction 1I The Year 7II The Setting 28III The Hall 44IV The Kitchen 66V The Scullery And Larder 86VI The Fuse Box 111VII The Drawing Room 135VIII The Dining Room 163IX The Cellar 191X The Passage 212XI The Study 237XII The Garden 255XIII The Plum Room 285XIV The Stairs 307XV The Bedroom 320XVI The Bathroom 344XVII The Dressing Room 374XVIII The Nursery 403XIX The Attic 432Acknowledgments 453Bibliography 455Illustration Credits 477Index 479
