Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill

 

Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era?

Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.)

UNMENTIONABLE is your hilarious, illustrated, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood, giving you detailed advice on:

~ What to wear
~ Where to relieve yourself
~ How to conceal your loathsome addiction to menstruating
~ What to expect on your wedding night
~ How to be the perfect Victorian wife
~ Why masturbating will kill you
~ And more

Irresistibly charming, laugh-out-loud funny, and featuring nearly 200 images from Victorian publications, UNMENTIONABLE will inspire a whole new level of respect for Elizabeth Bennett, Scarlet O'Hara, Jane Eyre, and all of our great, great grandmothers.

(And it just might leave you feeling ecstatically grateful to live in an age of pants, super absorbency tampons, epidurals, anti-depressants, and not-dying-of-the-syphilis-your-husband-brought-home.)

This book was not as funny as the description said. It was the cover that caught my attention and then the description.  I had thought about what it would be like to live back during that time, but seeing all the ladies and the layers they wore it made it a little less desirable.  I am a woman who likes her blue jeans.  It is a book that makes you think and imagine what it would have been like.  I did listen to the audiobook, so I was not able to see the images that are in the novel.  If I ever come across a physical copy of this book I would be interested to see what the pictures were. I would give this 3 stars.