A delightful reader's companion (The New York Times) to the great nineteenth-century British novels of Austen, Dickens, Trollope, the Brontes, and more, this lively guide clarifies the sometimes bizarre maze of rules and customs that governed life in Victorian England.

For anyone who has ever wondered whether a duke outranked an earl, when to yell Tally Ho! at a fox hunt, or how one landed in debtor's prison, this book serves as an indispensable historical and literary resource. Author Daniel Pool provides countless intriguing details (did you know that the plums in Christmas plum pudding were actually raisins?) on the Church of England, sex, Parliament, dinner parties, country house visiting, and a host of other aspects of nineteenth-century English life-both upstairs and downstairs.

An illuminating glossary gives at a glance the meaning and significance of terms ranging from ague to wainscoting, the specifics of the currency system, and a lively host of other details and curiosities of the day.