Bourgeois consumption : food, space and identity in London and Paris, 1850-1914 / Rachel Rich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rich, Rachel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Middle class--England--London--Social life and customs--19th century.

Middle class.

Middle class--France--Paris--Social life and customs--19th century.

Dinners and dining--Social aspects--England--London--History--19th century.

Dinners and dining.

Dinners and dining--Social aspects--France--Paris--History--19th century.

Food habits--England--London--History--19th century.

Food habits.

Food habits--France--Paris--History--19th century.

History.

Dinners and dining--Social aspects.

Manners and customs.

London (England)--Social life and customs--19th century.

London (England).

Paris (France)--Social life and customs--19th century.

Paris (France).

France--Paris.

England--London.

Physical Description:

239 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed in the United States by Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Summary:

Bourgeois consumption looks at how the middle classes in late nineteenth-century London and Paris used food and dining as forms of social expression. This engaging book about how class and gender informed people's eating habits focuses on the complex interactions between bodies, ritual and identity.

Forgoing the traditional food history territory of recipes and ingredients in favour of exploring how people ate in different circles, Bourgeois consumption explores the role of real and imagined meals in shaping Victorian lives. The perception of the middle classes as rigid and upright, found in the extensive pages of their etiquette books, is contrasted with a more flexible and spontaneous reality gleaned from the pages of their own colourful memoirs, diaries and letters, leading us on a lively journey into eating spaces, mealtimes, manners, and social interactions between diners. Further, contrasting Paris with London reveals some of the ways each city shaped its inhabitants but, more surprisingly, throws up a range of similarities that suggest the middle classes were, in fact, a transnational class. Locations such as the private home, the restaurant, the club and the banquet, traversed by individuals moving between social groups and spaces, offer insights not only into how class informs, but how it is actually shaped by consumption.

Bourgeois consumption work will be of interest to anyone interested in the history of food, consumption and leisure, as well as to a broader audience curious about how the Victorian middle classes distinguished themselves through their daily life and manners. Book jacket.

Contents:

Eating by the Rules: Prescriptive Literature and the Dissemination of Knowledge

Family dinners: timekeeping, privacy and women's knowledge

Dinner Parties: Ideal versus Experience

Respectable restaurants and the commercialisation of dinner

Members and Subscribers Only: Clubs and Banquets.

ISBN:

9780719081125

0719081122

OCLC:

701811057