Scan barcode
sstallryan's review
5.0
A fascinating read! This book is as much about Thomas Day as it is about the women who surround him.
josephfinn's review
5.0
Exactly what a great history should be: engrossing, entertaining and meticulously researched.
hollowspine's review
4.0
When I told friends and family what I was reading I got a couple odd looks. "How to Create the Perfect Wife," is not the typical title people who know me would expect to hear issuing forth in response to that particular question.
However, Wendy Moore's interesting and extremely well researched book is far from a manual on feminine ideals. Instead it is a bizarre and fascinating study of Thomas Day, an 18th Century radical, poet and perfectionist. At least when it came time for him to marry. Unimpressed by the delicate and musically educated women of his time, Day sought a wife both as educated (hey, that's forward looking) and as hardy (equality here we come) as himself, but also completely subservient to him in every way, including following his precise dictates for clothing, comportment and ideology (bummer).
Moore begins by giving the reader a detailed background of Thomas Day, a man constantly at odds with the world around him, disregarding the fashions and manners of his time, he sought a wife who would match his imagined ideal and would settle for nothing less. I found Moore's descriptions and observations throughout the book sought mainly to present the facts of the case and her interpretations neither damning nor condoning Days (and others) actions throughout the account.
I was impressed at the level of research and detail was put into the book, but also with the obvious fact that Moore really relished writing it. Evident throughout the writing, the many humorous asides and word play gives it a fiction-like read, very enjoyable.
I was constantly smiling, laughing and wanting to read bits aloud as I read this book. I would recommend this book, really to anyone, perhaps especially for those who like Downtown Abbey, Jane Austen, or just odd bits of history. I hope there is an audio edition for my nana.
However, Wendy Moore's interesting and extremely well researched book is far from a manual on feminine ideals. Instead it is a bizarre and fascinating study of Thomas Day, an 18th Century radical, poet and perfectionist. At least when it came time for him to marry. Unimpressed by the delicate and musically educated women of his time, Day sought a wife both as educated (hey, that's forward looking) and as hardy (equality here we come) as himself, but also completely subservient to him in every way, including following his precise dictates for clothing, comportment and ideology (bummer).
Moore begins by giving the reader a detailed background of Thomas Day, a man constantly at odds with the world around him, disregarding the fashions and manners of his time, he sought a wife who would match his imagined ideal and would settle for nothing less. I found Moore's descriptions and observations throughout the book sought mainly to present the facts of the case and her interpretations neither damning nor condoning Days (and others) actions throughout the account.
I was impressed at the level of research and detail was put into the book, but also with the obvious fact that Moore really relished writing it. Evident throughout the writing, the many humorous asides and word play gives it a fiction-like read, very enjoyable.
I was constantly smiling, laughing and wanting to read bits aloud as I read this book. I would recommend this book, really to anyone, perhaps especially for those who like Downtown Abbey, Jane Austen, or just odd bits of history. I hope there is an audio edition for my nana.
daniellew03cd3's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
5.0
I absolutely did not expect this to pull on my heartstrings so much. It took me a while to read this between my busy schedule and how much information there was to take in. This book is packed with not only the barebones story but an incredible amount of biographical and anecdotal information on nearly every other person to be remotely involved in the events. This was really well-researched and the narration was snarky and interesting. It was near the end when I got really emotionally involved. Moore did what I hadn’t expected, which was to make me care about so many of these people but particularly Sabrina. In fact, I think that’s what was done best. I went into this book thinking it was about Day and his craziness and all along it was about Sabrina.
belinda's review
3.0
A recurring cultural myth is that of Pygmalian, an artist who sculpted a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with her. After praying to the goddess Venus, he came home one day to his sculpture, Galatea, brought to life. He had literally created his own perfect woman. Contemporary audiences are probably most familiar with the My Fair Lady version of the story, where Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) bets a friend that he can train the common flower seller Eliza Dolittle (Audrey Hepburn) to pass in high society as a duchess. In How to Create the Perfect Wife, historian Wendy Moore looks at the 18th century attempt of wealthy Georgian landowner Thomas Day to create his own perfect wife by effectively abducting two pre-pubescent girls from a foundling home and subjecting them to a training and education program based on the novel and educational framework Emile by French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
How to Create the Perfect Wife is not very well written. Moore repeats my least favourite historical writer’s flaw of attributing feelings to historical figures based on what the author imagines the figure felt without any actual evidence. For example, one of the orphans (Ann) and Thomas Day travel from the orphanage in the English countryside from which he kidnapped her to London. Moore states: “After the simple formality of institutional life in rural Shropshire, the chaotic clamour of Georgian London must have struck Ann Kingston with a resounding shock” (p. 52). However, she could equally have written “After the simple formality of institutional life in rural Shropshire, the chaotic clamour of Georgian London must have seemed full of life and possibilities to Ann” or “After travelling for many days with a man such as Day, Ann must have been longing for a soft bed and a friendly face.” Any of those could be equally true, so why speculate at all? All historical biographers, please stick with the facts and spare us useless conjecture.
That said, one of the best thing about this book is its meticulous detailed research. Moore, using archival records, existing histories, contemporaneous novels and many first-hand sources paints an excellent picture of Georgian London. Thomas Day’s ‘wife project’ is very different to the other wife project I wrote about recently but, even in his time where single and married women could not hold property or other assets, it was highly unorthodox for a single man to live unchaperoned with two young women. While one of the pair is deemed unsuitable for marriage very soon into the project and is ‘given away’ (urgh I hate this guy so very much), Day is involved with the second girl, who he renames Sabrina, until she is in her late teens and his actions affect both her ability to marry, as her reputation is sullied by her unusual living conditions and her ability to live well, as he provides her with only a small stipend yet his education of her has lead to her being almost completely unemployable. I found it fascinating the extent to which Day’s friends and acquaintances allowed him to continue with his practices, which they seemed to acknowledge as horrible and harmful, because of suspect practices of their own such as keeping a mistress or being involved in an extramarital affair.
The narrative is a bit fractured, with figures just dropping in and out of the main story, but that’s how real life works. I found this a truly fascinating story of power, abuse and historical experiences of being female. It illustrates that domestic violence transcends not just wealth and class but has occurred across time and is closely intertwined with power. I hope that one day as a society we will move past thinking violence and control against women is acceptable, although recent events suggest that time is a long way away.
I give How to Create the Perfect Wife three stars.
How to Create the Perfect Wife is not very well written. Moore repeats my least favourite historical writer’s flaw of attributing feelings to historical figures based on what the author imagines the figure felt without any actual evidence. For example, one of the orphans (Ann) and Thomas Day travel from the orphanage in the English countryside from which he kidnapped her to London. Moore states: “After the simple formality of institutional life in rural Shropshire, the chaotic clamour of Georgian London must have struck Ann Kingston with a resounding shock” (p. 52). However, she could equally have written “After the simple formality of institutional life in rural Shropshire, the chaotic clamour of Georgian London must have seemed full of life and possibilities to Ann” or “After travelling for many days with a man such as Day, Ann must have been longing for a soft bed and a friendly face.” Any of those could be equally true, so why speculate at all? All historical biographers, please stick with the facts and spare us useless conjecture.
That said, one of the best thing about this book is its meticulous detailed research. Moore, using archival records, existing histories, contemporaneous novels and many first-hand sources paints an excellent picture of Georgian London. Thomas Day’s ‘wife project’ is very different to the other wife project I wrote about recently but, even in his time where single and married women could not hold property or other assets, it was highly unorthodox for a single man to live unchaperoned with two young women. While one of the pair is deemed unsuitable for marriage very soon into the project and is ‘given away’ (urgh I hate this guy so very much), Day is involved with the second girl, who he renames Sabrina, until she is in her late teens and his actions affect both her ability to marry, as her reputation is sullied by her unusual living conditions and her ability to live well, as he provides her with only a small stipend yet his education of her has lead to her being almost completely unemployable. I found it fascinating the extent to which Day’s friends and acquaintances allowed him to continue with his practices, which they seemed to acknowledge as horrible and harmful, because of suspect practices of their own such as keeping a mistress or being involved in an extramarital affair.
The narrative is a bit fractured, with figures just dropping in and out of the main story, but that’s how real life works. I found this a truly fascinating story of power, abuse and historical experiences of being female. It illustrates that domestic violence transcends not just wealth and class but has occurred across time and is closely intertwined with power. I hope that one day as a society we will move past thinking violence and control against women is acceptable, although recent events suggest that time is a long way away.
I give How to Create the Perfect Wife three stars.
More...