The Wikipedia Maze

[mtvessel]

Jun 2019
At Home - Bill Bryson – Black Swan, 2010
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The most annoying thing about this book is that almost every word of its subtitle - "A short history of private life" - is a lie. At over 600 pages, it is certainly not short. A choice of subjects that includes, inter alia, the construction of the Eiffel Tower, the extravagant spending of the hyper-rich in early twentieth century America, and the life and times of Sir John Vanbrugh (the architect of Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace), cannot be said to be primarily about private life. And the lack of any developed theme or chronology means that it can't be called a history. "Bill Bryson's random musings inspired by the rooms of his house" would be a less catchy but more apt title. Though I can see that it wouldn't have sold as well.

Actually, to say that there's no theme is not quite true. Each chapter is named after a room in Bryson's house, a converted nineteenth century vicarage in Norfolk, and he makes frequent reference to its builder, the Reverend Marsham. It's fairly clear that Bryson's original intention was to do a history of the development of the function that each room served, but he gets distracted en route, rather like the maze of related topics that looking something up on Wikipedia can lead you into. As always with Bryson, the distractions are worthwhile - all kinds of interesting titbits of knowledge from the construction of the Crystal Palace to the appalling employment practises for Victorian domestic servants to the natural history of the rat can be found here - but don't imagine that it is an actual history book.