An edition of At Home (2010)

At Home

A Short History of Private Life

First Anchor Books Edition (1)

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Cover of: At Home by Bill Bryson, Bill Bryson
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  • ★★★★ 4.0 (35 ratings)
  • 110 Want to read
  • 6 Currently reading
  • 43 Have read
Notes

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Last edited by Drini
June 12, 2025 | History
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An edition of At Home (2010)

At Home

A Short History of Private Life

First Anchor Books Edition (1)

by

  • ★★★★ 4.0 (35 ratings)
  • 110 Want to read
  • 6 Currently reading
  • 43 Have read

With his signature wit, charm, and seemingly limitless knowledge, Bill Bryson takes us on a room-by-room tour through his own house, using each room as a jumping off point into the vast history of the domestic artifacts we take for granted. As he takes us through the history of our modern comforts, Bryson demonstrates that whatever happens in the world eventually ends up in our home, in the paint, the pipes, the pillows, and every item of furniture. Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and his sheer prose fluency makes At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.
(back cover)

Publish Date
Publisher
Anchor Books
Language
English
Pages
581

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Previews available in: Dutch Russian English

Subjects

cosmetics history of cotton spinning jenny corsets Victorian fashion nurseries attics plum rooms stairs wallpaper paint bedrooms bathrooms dressing rooms linen hemp wool silk sumptuary laws English medieval clothing wigs studies pests mousetraps mason jars disease vectors rats mice bedbugs bats locusts gardens cement East India Company table manners Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster Tay Bridge disaster blackouts Industrial Revolution tallow beeswax whaling kerosene gas lighting electric lighting drawing rooms crop rotation history of tea history of coffee cattle dining rooms nutrition scurvy beriberi history of salt black pepper spice trade Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management Victorian England sculleries larders domestic workers slavery great halls Volkerwanderung grubenhaus architecture food adulteration food preservation Wenham Lake Ice Company clergy domestic life Houses Environmental aspects Rooms Dwellings Psychological aspects Environmental aspects of Rooms Psychological aspects of Rooms Environmental aspects of Dwellings Psychological aspects of Dwellings home mundanity socialization introspection History Nonfiction New York Times bestseller nyt:paperback_nonfiction=2011-10-15 Social life and customs Social history Social evolution Domestic Social change Social conditions Manners and customs HOUSE & HOME / Reference HISTORY / Reference SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture Reading Level-Grade 7 Reading Level-Grade 9 Reading Level-Grade 8 Reading Level-Grade 11 Reading Level-Grade 10 Reading Level-Grade 12 Large type books Households New York Times reviewed Arts & Entertainment Home & Garden Fictional Works Home economics Great britain, social conditions

People

Bill Bryson Lon Don Thomas John Gordon Marsham Mrs Anna Maria Thornton Louisa Beckford Edward Townsend Stotesbury George Templeton Strong Maria Clutterbuck James Henry Atkinson Oliver Belmont David Clark Harriet Taylor Ranald Michie Henry Dreyfuss Jonathan Franklin Merlin D. Tuttle Daniel Edwards Cyriacus Ahlers Thomas A. Watson Sebastiano Serlio J. Sterling Morton Liza Picard Hannah Cullwick François Lallemand Johann Philipp Reis Pitt Rivers R. E. Crompton Joseph Aspdin George Bayldon Pasqua Rosee Charles A. R. Campbell Arthur Munby Joseph Bazalgette Isaac Ware Brian Ayers John Landis Mason Richard Morris Hunt Gordon Childe Antony Dale Dr. Richard Russell Hermann Sprengel E. V. McCollum Carol Heaton Robert Kerr Philip Henry Gosse Alfred Lord Tennyson William G. Blauvelt Dennis Pogue William Greenwell John Fraser Addison Mizner Elias Howe William Grove Emily Cockayne Ötzi Bryan Donkin Hamish Hamilton Lords Carlisle Alice Vanderbilt Nicolas-François Appert Annie Kaplan Josiah Wedgwood III King George IV Joseph Swan Judith Flanders Isabella Beeton Stratton Strawless George Neville Frederick Charrington Humphry Clinker Calvert Vaux David Macpherson Joseph Addison E. L. Drake William Beckford Baker Brown Samuel Rogers Silbury Hill John Vanbrugh Daniel Pincot Eleanor Stanley Edmund Cartwright Sutton Courtenay Peter Willis John Claudius Loudon Henry Cartwright Mary Mercer James M. Clinton Gardiner Hubbard Jane Sotworth Mark Girouard Frank Buckland James Barclay Feargus O'Connor Jane Grenville Edward Tull Susan Stein George Pitt Matthew Digby Wyatt James Hargreaves Witold Rybczynski Eleanor Coade Juliet Gardiner Andrew Mellon J. Alfred Gotch Thomas Barnardo Jane Webb Robert Smythson Edwin Chadwick Vere Gordon Childe Dr George C. Menzies Henry Cavendish Edmund Antrobus Puloroon Frédéric Bartholdi Frederick Hale Holmes Eva Stotesbury Charles Wentworth Dilke George S. Rasmussen Wilson Mizner Nancy Jones Lord Scarborough Simon Jenkins William K. Vanderbilt Elizabeth Wayland Barber Blanchard Jerrold Skara Brae Baron Walsingham John Harington Commodore Vanderbilt Robert Marsham Nathaniel Wyeth James Mellaart Duke of Marlborough Dr Charles P. Gerba Abraham Gesner Giovanni Aldini Edwin Drake John Farquhar Thomas Drummond Aston Clinton Uriah Phillips Levy James Woodforde Cyrus McCormick John Michell John Bennet Lawes Duc de Malakoff Caroline of Anspach Robert Fortune A. Graham Bell Earl of Carlisle Casimir Funk Emma Wedgwood Duke of Devonshire Mr. Stotesbury Orson Fowler Peter Laslett Ami Argand Lord Burlington Bob Self Isambard Kingdom Brunel Effie Ruskin Charlotte Wedgwood John Frere Charles Langton Friedrich Hoffmann George Peabody John Harden Heinrich Hoffmann John A. Templer Karl Scheele Robert Southey George Bissell Lancelot Brown Thomas Bayes Thomas Crapper Edmond Halley Richard Arkwright Frederick Law Olmsted

Places

Monticello Mount Vernon Biltmore mansion North Carolina Chrysler Building Norfolk England Crystal Palace Skara Brae Scotland Chicago United States Great Britain Eerie Canal Great Lakes New York Eiffel Tower London

Times

1851 19th century Age of Exploration 1825 1850 1856 1930 Gilded Age 17th century 1800s

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Een huis vol: Een kleine geschiedenis van het dagelijks leven
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Краткая история быта и частной жизни
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At home: a short history of private life
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At Home: A short history of private life
2011, Black Swan
paperback in English - Black Swan edition (1)
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At Home: A Short History of Private Life
2011-10, Anchor Books
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At home: A Short History of Private Life
2011, Black Swan
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At Home: A Short History of Private Life
2010, Doubleday
hardcover in English - printing (1)
Cover of: At Home
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
2010, Doubleday
Hardcover in English - 1st U.S. ed.
Cover of: At Home
At Home
2010, Doubleday
paperback in English
Cover of: At home
At home: a short history of private life
2010, Doubleday
Hardcover in English - First United States Edition (1)

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Book Details

Table of Contents

Introduction
Page 3
I. The Year
Page 9
II. The Setting
Page 35
III. The Hall
Page 53
IV. The Kitchen
Page 79
V. The Scullery and Larder
Page 102
VI. The Fuse Box
Page 131
VII. The Drawing Room
Page 160
VIII. The Dining Room
Page 193
IX. The Cellar
Page 226
X. The Passage
Page 251
XI. The Study
Page 280
XII. The Garden
Page 301
XIII. The Plum Room
Page 337
XIV. The Stairs
Page 363
XV. The Bedroom
Page 378
XVI. The Bathroom
Page 406
XVII. The Dressing Room
Page 441
XVIII. The Nursery
Page 475
XIX. The Attic
Page 509
Acknowledgments
Page 533
Bibliography
Page 535
Illustration Credits
Page 561
Index
Page 563

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (pages 535-560) and index.

Published in
New York
Copyright Date
2010

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
643.1
Library of Congress
GT165.5 .B79 2011

The Physical Object

Format
Paperback
Pagination
577, [4] pages :
Number of pages
581

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL26299281M
ISBN 10
0767919394
ISBN 13
9780767919395
LCCN
2010004008
OCLC/WorldCat
697261596, 865292370, 1267611583
Alibris ID
9780767919395
Google
WqxvlLwc2v8C
Goodreads
43574547

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL15100470W

Source records

Work Description

At Home: A Short History of Private Life is a history of domestic life written by Bill Bryson. It was published in May 2010. The book covers topics of the commerce, architecture, technology and geography that have shaped homes into what they are today, told through a series of "tours" through Bryson's Norfolk rectory that quickly digress into the history of each particular room.

Excerpts

Some time after my wife and I moved into a former Church of England rectory in a village of tranquil anonymity in Norfolk, in the easternmost part of England, I had occasion to go up into the attic to look for the source of a slow but mysterious drip.
added by Lisa.

first sentence

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