Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Great historic review September 9, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. I love history and this adds to my knowledge.
Helpful History June 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Both as a student of history and a "wannabe" writer of historical fiction, I find Mr. Porter's book an excellent reference.
His unique style keeps the information both interesting and entertaining; not the usual dry material we expect in historical records. I highly recommend this vivid narrative to anyone interested in England in the fascinating 18th century.
 History Repeats Itself October 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The good thing about this book is, as another reviewer has put it, that its author is a "writer who happens to be an historian" rather than vice-versa. ---In other words, it has an authorial voice----Unfortunately, that's also the not so good thing about it. While we are kept turning the pages with droll quips and the like, the attentive reader won't fail to notice that these quips become repetitive. Not only that, but Porter uses the same citations to make exactly the same point in different chapters. Stylism in history writing doesn't always play so fast and loose, but it does here.
Several of the reviewers seem to have read this work as a classroom assignment, their first exposure to Eighteenth Century England beyond Hollywood (for at least one reviewer). For such, this book is probably just the ticket. Those looking for more depth and less anecdote will need to turn elsewhere.
 Disappointing and irritating August 12, 2004
14 out of 49 found this review helpful
Oh, yes, there are a lot of other reviewers who like this book, but I found it somewhat nauseating. Porter's book, originally published in 1990, does not fail to reflect the author's prejudices, which are cattily expressed in a barely concealed yet perfectly clear professorial snobbishness as regards the "elites" of 18th c. England. As the son and grandson of university academics, perhaps I find myself over-sensitive to this sort of thing, but one cannot but wonder if Roy Porter isn't subject to just a bit of the olde English class envy from which the overly self-conscious and upwardly mobile can suffer. Supper at the High Table with hooray Harrys must be sheer torture for him, poor man. Otherwise, it's a competent, workmanlike attempt at an overview of 18th century society, but not much more.
A Pure Delight August 18, 2003
49 out of 53 found this review helpful
I come late to Porter, and I certainly wish I hadn't. It's almost enough to make me surrender my credentials as a dyed-in-the-wool lover of English History. The deceased physician-cum-historian was a prolific writer, turning out works on subjects as diverse as English manners and the social history of gout. But having now read two of his books, including this excellent overview of English society in the Georgian period, I realize what all the (quiet) fuss was about. Porter was simply a fabulous writer who happened to be an historian, the opposite too often not being the case. I doubt very much there is a better source in this subject for the general reader than this book. But if you buy it, by all means read it slowly and take time to savor the writing. The good news for me is that I have a lot of Porter yet to read, and I can't wait.
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