Kirjahaku

For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else’s home was commonplace. Yet, despite their prevalence, lodgers and their householders have received little scholarly attention. Drawing on hundreds of coroners’ inquests reported in the Victorian press, Living with lodgers traverses many domestic dwelling lodgings in England at this time, providing an extraordinary, intimate portrayal of the lives of the inhabitants therein.

This book examines the life-cycle of Victorian working-class marriage through a study of the hitherto hidden marital bed. Using coroners’ inquests to gain intimate access to the working-class home and its inhabitants, this book explores their marital, quasi-marital, and post-marital beds to reveal the material, domestic, and emotional experience of working-class marriage during everyday life and at times of crisis. Drawing on the recent approach of utilising domestic objects to explore interpersonal relationships, the marital bed not only provides a rereading of the experiences of the working-class wife but also brings the much maligned or simply overlooked working-class husband into the picture. Moreover, it also extends our understanding of the various marriage-like arrangements existing throughout this class. Moving through the marital life-cycle, this book provides a greater understanding of marriages from the outset, during childbirth, at times of strife and marital breakdown, and upon the death of a spouse.

This book examines the life-cycle of Victorian working-class marriage through a study of the hitherto hidden marital bed. Using coroners’ inquests to gain intimate access to the working-class home and its inhabitants, this book explores their marital, quasi-marital, and post-marital beds to reveal the material, domestic, and emotional experience of working-class marriage during everyday life and at times of crisis. Drawing on the recent approach of utilising domestic objects to explore interpersonal relationships, the marital bed not only provides a rereading of the experiences of the working-class wife but also brings the much maligned or simply overlooked working-class husband into the picture. Moreover, it also extends our understanding of the various marriage-like arrangements existing throughout this class. Moving through the marital life-cycle, this book provides a greater understanding of marriages from the outset, during childbirth, at times of strife and marital breakdown, and upon the death of a spouse.

For the Victorian working class, lodging in someone else’s home was commonplace. Yet, despite their prevalence, lodgers and their householders have received little scholarly attention. Drawing on hundreds of coroners’ inquests reported in the Victorian press, Living with Lodgers traverses many domestic dwelling lodgings in England at this time, providing an extraordinary, intimate portrayal of the lives of the inhabitants therein.