Daniel Pool

A “delightful reader’s companion” (The New York Times) to the great nineteenth-century British novels of Austen, Dickens, Trollope, the Brontës, 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.

From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew

Describes the attractions of the Christmas season in New York City, from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to the dropping of the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve, and includes information about some of the past traditions, and anecdotes about the origins of now famous holiday songs, movies, and characters.

Christmas in New York

The industry that produced the great Victorian novels & the 50,000 other English novels published during Victoria's reign was a shared business of publishers, writers, & book distributors. This book is the story of how that industry rose from virtual obscurity to dominate English literature &, for a time, world literature as well. But the story is not one merely of economics & literary formats. There was a good deal of interaction, sometimes friendly, sometimes rivalrous, & sometimes hostile between its members. Gathers together the facts of daily life in 19th cent. England & presents an entertaining social history that is indispensable to lovers of Victorian literature. Illus.

The Rows and Romances of Englands Great Victorian Novelists

Dickens Fur Coat and Charlottes Unanswered Letters

The author of the critically hailed "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" takes readers on an engaging, high-spirited romp through Victorian England to expose the very human side of Dickens, the Brontes, Thackeray, and other great literary figures of the time. Illustrations.

The Rows and Romances of England's Great Victorian Novelists

Dickens' Fur Coat and Charlotte's Unanswered Letters

Explores the publicity stunts, rivalries, rows, and mayhem perpetrated by famous Victorian authors

1998 New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age New York is seemingly the center of the universe during the Christmas season, beginning with Santa's arrival in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and culminating with the dropping of the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve. And why not? After all, New York is the birthplace of electric Christmas tree lights, Lionel trains, F. A. O. Schwarz, "White Christmas," and, of course, Santa Claus. In Christmas in New York, Daniel Pool takes the reader on a tour of present-day New York Christmas attractions (the Rockefeller Center Tree, the store windows, the shows, the songs, the smells.) He tells little-known facts and stories about the history of Christmas in New York (how Maurice Sendak's career started designing F. A. O. Schwarz windows; how Guy Lombardo's "Auld Lang Syne" became the official New Year's song; a complete "Santology"). And finally, there is a section on "The Ghosts of Christmas Past"--long-time New York Christmas traditions that have fallen by the wayside. A marvelous mingling of the now and then, Pool's book, with fifty unique photographs and a characteristic biting wit, conveys the true New York Christmas spirit.

Daniel Pool

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