A London Home in the 1890s (Oxford Paperbacks ; 402)

by Molly Hughes and M.V. Hughes

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192812572
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Anecdotes of London, America, and Victorian family life

This is the third volume in Mary Hughes's autobiographical trilogy. The first two are "A London Child of the 1870's", and "A London Girl of the 1880's". Both are highly recommended, and I strongly suggest that you read both before you read this. In this third volume, the quality is at times not quite as high as in the first two. There are exceptions -- a tragic episode is described unsentimentally at one point, and brought me close to tears -- but the book is very anecdotal. It covers the time from her engagement, as Mary Thomas, to Arthur Hughes, in the late 1880's, to their marriage in July 1897, and a few years past that into early marriagehood. During that time, while still single, she visits the World's Fair in Chicago to attend an educational conference, and manages to visit Washington and Boston as well. There are stories about her prospective in-laws; her brothers and their families; her fiancé; and her work as a teacher and a trainer of other teachers. The stories are uniformly well-told and interesting, but the book feels a little more episodic than the first two, both of which have a densely textured feel, as Hughes recounts in loving detail old memories. This volume is well worth reading, but doesn't quite come up to the same very high standard that the first two do. Recommended, but do get hold of the first two volumes.