Book Review: At Home by Bill Bryson

 I just finished "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" by Bill Bryson, which has already been praised and recommended by practically everyone.  And little wonder; it's fantastic!

The book is organized by the rooms of the author's house.  For example, he begins in the hall and traces the origins of the hall, it's purpose through history and related topics.  Then he travels through the kitchen, discussing food production, consumption and such.  And so on, through the house all the way to the attic.  All the history he recounts is so vivid and peppered with interesting characters that the pace of the book almost felt like a novel.

For example, one tidbit from the book concerns the direction of joists.  Joists used to rest on partition walls separating one residence from another, running side to side.  But the structural economy was actually really devastating when there was a fire, since the fire would travel from house to house so quickly.  So beginning around the Georgian period, builders ran the joists front to back instead of side to side.  And the partition walls served as a firestop between residences.  But since joists aren't long enough to span the entire length of a property, the rooms in Georgian houses were dictated by the length of the joists.

For Downtown Abbey lovers, this book is particularly enlightening about the attitudes and practices that were common in the Victorian era.  The section addressing the history of servants made the details in the show even richer.  Also, there was a passage about American heiresses marrying English noblemen that seemed applicable as well.