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

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.)

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320 pages

Average rating: 7.83

6 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Anonymous
Apr 26, 2023
8/10 stars
I've decided that I needed to get this book off my "to review" pile on my kitchen table, so I'm not going to go back and do an elaborate review. This will either be your cup of tea humor-wise or it won't. I liked the conversational tone and definitely laughed a number of times. Some parts started to feel a little long or repetitive, but all in all, I really enjoyed this. I learned some things and even decided to cherish some things in my life that I didn't cherish quite as much before reading this (certain medical advancements, my husband not being a complete dolt or psycho, underwear with a crotch where I can stick my pantiliner if I so please).

Sticking with 4 Stars

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I'm in a cranky mood (which if I lived in the 19th century, could be from hysteria or excessive masturbation or having too much sex or having too little sex or from simply being a woman), so I'm going to review this one later. I'm putting down 4 stars for now, but that may change.

But I definitely liked it. And I startled the silence in my house by laughing out loud on more than one occasion (another thing that could have linked me to hysteria), so that's a win!

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