Praise for Unmentionable!

“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.” –Kate DiGirolomo, Library Journal, selected as one of Library Journal Editor’s Pick for Fall 2016

 

“If UNMENTIONABLE does not secure the Pulitzer Prize for Most Fascinating Book Ever, the whole gig is rigged. Therese Oneill opens the doors to everything we secretly wanted to know about the Victorian era, but didn’t think to ask. Knickers with no crotches? Check. Arsenic as a facial scrub? Check? The infrequency of bathing and the stench of the Victorian body? Check mate. Hilarious, horrifying, shocking and revelatory, UNMENTIONABLE is for every girl who pictured herself running through a field of wildflowers in a silk dress and Little House on the Prairie boots, only to discover she has nits in her hair, her clothes have never been washed and she sleeps with her poop under her bed in a bowl. A miracle of a book and one of my favorite reads ever, Unmentionable will be my go-to gift this year. All hail Therese Oneill for uncovering all of that dirty, dirty laundry.” –Laurie Notaro, #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Looked Different on the Model and Housebroken

 

“Hysterically funny and unsettlingly fascinating. This book is full of awesome.” Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Let’s
Pretend This NeverHappened and Furiously Happy

“…The author’s wicked sense of humor saves the subject from devolving into a dry tome, instead providing laugh-out-loud moments on the most unthinkable and unmentionable subjects. The brilliance of this study is Oneill’s ability to transport readers back in time and have them experience the day to day life of women battling the issues of the era.” -Stacey Shaw, Library Journal

 “…Flat out hysterical (and occasionally alarming) look at women’s everyday lives in the Victorian Era. (Hint: It involves nits, intense BO, and a bowl of pee under your bed.) Read it and be very, very glad you’re a woman of modern times.” – Good Housekeeping’s 17 Best New Books to Read This Fall

Where to Buy  Unmentionable!

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners can be ordered from these sites, and should also be available at your local bookstore. If it isn’t, give them a proper dressing down for slouchiness and ask them to order it. Because you, my dear, need not stand for that kind of nonsense. 

Indiebound

Barnes & Noble 

iTunes

Amazon

Books A Million 

And don’t forget to add Unmentionable to your Goodreads list!

 

 

The Reviews Are In!

“Oneill uncovers the filthy, untidy, licentious conditions of nineteenth-century women’s lives that novelists of the period often glossed over…brilliantly conveyed with fascinating illustrations.”―Elle

“Both fascinating and hilarious, Oneill has created a book so excellently informative about the Victorian period, it should be shelved right next to Dickens for reference. Your stomach will hurt so much from laughing, you’ll be thankful you’re not wearing a corset.”―Bustle

“It’s hard to imagine a woman – or a teenage girl – who won’t love this book.”―Caitlin Flanagan, Washington Post

“A fascinating look into the shocking pseudoscience of the 1800s, in which Oneill sheds new light on the origins of today’s misogyny, double standards, and just plain mystery surrounding women that, maddeningly enough, persist.”―Booklist

“Rich with information that will amuse and sometimes horrify… the playful application of language makes the horrendous plight of Victorian women palatable to modern audiences. Oneill succeeds in making otherwise dry information (the proper order of eating utensils, the development of modern sanitation) sparkle.”―The Guardian

“If you’ve ever felt like you should have been born in another time, Unmentionable will disabuse you of that sensibility, and it will do so charmingly. Focused on all the trappings of 19th-century womanhood-from wacky olde products (‘perambulating umbrella cases,’ scary-looking birth controls methods) to what one could expect on her wedding night-the book transmits a wealth of historical research in a cheerfully tongue-in-cheek tone and an impressive collection of archival photos.”―Vice/Broadly

“Although it’s nonfiction, Oneill writes from the perspective of an all-knowing, slightly cheeky Victorian woman giving guidance to the contemporary woman. The result is a thoroughly researched but hilarious look into daily life of the Victorian woman.”―The Millions

“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, Editors Fall Pick

“A quick, hilarious romp through the gritty unmentionable details that literature fails to discuss–those of the most intimate nature. . . . Oneill’s delight in her subject is endearing. She delivers even the most disturbing facts, like how drinking wells and sewage were placed close to each other, in entertaining ways. Yet Oneill’s stories are not without depth. Throughout Unmentionable, she notes how far feminism and related movements have come from the constrictions of Victorian ideologies.“―Shelf Awareness

“Flat-out hysterical (and occasionally alarming)…Read it and be very, very glad you’re a woman of modern times.”―Good Housekeeping

“Both fascinating and hilarious, Oneill has created a book so excellently informative about the Victorian period, it should be shelved right next to Dickens for reference.” – Bust Magazine

“I didn’t like the way it was written as if the writer was talking directly to me as if I was transported back in time. If she called me Cherie, darling or other cutsie names one more time, I would have hit her over the head, if I could have.” – The lady from Amazon who wants to smack me which is very understandable…my narrator is pretty pompous.