Unmentionable cover art

Unmentionable

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

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Unmentionable

By: Therese Oneill
Narrated by: Betsy Foldes Meiman
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About this listen

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, 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, Unmentionable will inspire a whole new level of respect for Elizabeth Bennett, Scarlett 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, superabsorbency tampons, epidurals, antidepressants, and not dying of the syphilis your husband brought home.)

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2016 Therese Oneill (P)2016 Hachette Audio Literature & Fiction Satire Marriage Comedy Funny Witty

Critic Reviews

"A down-and-dirty perusal of the realities of hygiene and womanhood in the Victorian era. The truth behind slimming corsets, virtuous nuptials, and strict morals is sometimes shocking, occasionally alarming, but always funny with Oneill's wry commentary." ( Library Journal)
"Flat-out hysterical (and occasionally alarming).... Read it and be very, very glad you're a woman of modern times." ( Good Housekeeping)
"Oneill uncovers the filthy, untidy, licentious conditions of 19th-century women's lives that novelists of the period often glossed over." ( Elle)
All stars
Most relevant  
This was both a highly entertaining audiobook, but also very depressing history lesson.

The narrator was Sass Queen, and helped you overlook the shitty plight of being a woman in the nineteenth century. It's a very narrow focus in terms of the types of women it discusses - mainly ladies - but it does cover a bunch of topics.

I ended up listening to it at x1.5 speed to get through it and it was still easy to understand.

You've Been Sassed

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the writers quirky sense of humor is captured perfectly by the narrator. I'm learning and having a giggle at the same time.

love this!

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Thought this was a really interesting take on the life of women in Victorian times. The narrator did take a bit of getting used to, and perhaps is not the style I would originally have expected but I overcame that in the end. I recommend this for everyone who wants an insight into the less pleasant aspects of or ancestors lives.

Great book - though the narrative an acquired taste.

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