• This Victorian Life

  • Modern Adventures in Nineteenth-Century Culture, Cooking, Fashion, and Technology
  • By: Sarah A. Chrisman
  • Narrated by: Laural Merlington
  • Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (66 ratings)

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This Victorian Life  By  cover art

This Victorian Life

By: Sarah A. Chrisman
Narrated by: Laural Merlington
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Publisher's summary

We all know that the best way to study a foreign language is to go to a country where it's spoken, but can the same immersion method be applied to history? How do interactions with antique objects influence perceptions of the modern world?

From Victorian beauty regimes to 19th-century bicycles, custard recipes to taxidermy experiments, oil lamps to an ice box, Sarah and Gabriel Chrisman decided to explore 19th-century culture and technologies from the inside out. Even the deepest aspects of their lives became affected, and the more immersed they became in the late Victorian era, the more aware they grew of its legacies permeating the 21st century.

In her first book, Victorian Secrets, Chrisman recalled the first year she spent wearing a Victorian corset 24/7. In This Victorian Life, Chrisman picks up where Secrets left off and documents her complete shift into living as though she were in the 19th century.

©2015 Sarah A. Chrisman (P)2015 Tantor

What listeners say about This Victorian Life

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Not Adorable Just Strange

You don’t have to read too fare before you realize the author and her husband’s adoption of Victorian era technology and customs is as much a product of their strange and awkward personalities as their love of history. If it hadn’t been period reenactment they would have adopted some other “look at me I’m special, different and misunderstood” lifestyle like religious fundamentalism or full body tattooing. Occasionally you do get some interesting insight into late Victorian life but you have to wade through a lot of ultra-trite memoir style impressions from her daily life. It doesn’t help that she attempts to write in a style reminiscent of her favorite time period and falls quite a bite short with her arcane and needlessly elaborate vocabulary.

Also, the narrator seems a totally inappropriate choice for a first-person account of a young woman’s thoughts and impressions. I get the sense the author is in her mid-30’s but the narrator is 20 years older and with her pinched, schoolmarm vocal style is more suited to reading to very young children than adults.

If you are looking for a truly engrossing historical commentary on everyday life check out Bill Bryson's "At Home". It ranges from the medieval to the Victorian era and is incredibly well researched and entertaining.

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10 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Way too opinionated.

Why can't you love something without slamming everyone else? The writer's ego ruined all else.

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I thought I had heard the WORST narrator on audible but then there was this one...

The book is interesting and intriguing even if it is full of every simile you could possibly come up with. By the time there was 2 or 3 hours left I was bored with it - even still I don't feel like it was a waste of time. I appreciate this woman's ability to not care what others may think and pursue a passion. My biggest gripe is with the narrator. I wanted to rip my ears off just so I wouldn't have to listen to her voice and plethora of mispronounced words.

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5 people found this helpful

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Couldn't put it down!

I absolutely loved this book! It was fascinating from beginning to end. Now I am ordering Victorian Secrets by Sarah so my nineteenth-century adventure can continue. I can't get enough!

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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It had potential

I was excited to start this book, and disappointed that I could only stomach it until the half way mark. The author is too free in labeling others, and not sticking to her subject matter: the challenges of living a Victorian Life in the 21st century.

To compound this, the narrator sounds like she is giving her first book report. There is little variation or warmth to her voice.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars

A few hiccups but enjoyable and informative.

Let me start this review by describing the issues I had with the book. In the first chapter the author compares interacting with others who are fond of the victorian era but not historically accurate to a Black person being invited to a NAACP event but showing up to a minstrel show. I found that to be insensitive, inaccurate and racist of the author. There were also a couple of detailed descriptions of spiders in the book that I found disturbing. So if you're afraid of spiders skip over that part. Overall I liked the book. As someone who is intrested in the victorian era I found it very informative. I also loved the ending.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Victorian Life

This was interesting and funny. I enjoyed it for the most part. Lauras Merlingtons narration was well done.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but long winded

This is a tale of a modern couple who endeavor to live a Victorian lifestyle. Where it can be heartwarming, comical, and insightful it is equally mundane and uninteresting. The author has a talent for eloquently describing the obvious. It is interesting but more than a bit drawn out for a 12 hour listen.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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I've re-listened to this book 4-5 times

The book is fascinating and the narrator is excellent. I've listened to this every time I want to enjoy a book but don't know what to read.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Not really what I thought

I made the mistake of not reading the description and other reviews more closely before choosing this selection. There is little, in my opinion, truly about Victorian life and nothing new to anyone who has done an even superficial review of Victorian culture. It is more about the author who happens to be trying to life in SOME ways a Victorian lifestyle. She could just as well be trying out live in medieval times. As one reviewer noted, I also found it very trite and would add "prissy" in both the author's writing and compounded significantly by the narrator. This selection was a big mistake for me, and, I think, probably appeals to a very narrow niche readership. Not really satisfying if you are looking for new or interesting or extensive information about Victorian life/culture. I could not finish it!

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