‘Real drudgery’

This chapter argues that the work of the house — the ‘housework’ — was not simply about cleaning, enhancing, and generally improving the domestic environment. Before 1914, it involved the performance of more fundamental tasks necessary to sustain life. The home called for a daily round of collecting water, purchasing and preparing food, lighting and clearing fires, cleaning and repairing clothes, and looking after children. In rural areas, firewood needed to be collected as well. The home could not function without water, fuel, and food, and obtaining these things involved hard, physical work and took many hours daily. Marriage and housekeeping might be an exciting prospect, but the reality of running a house was not.

‘A man’s work was a man’s life’

This chapter reveals the significance for work to male identity. Here, it shows how the centrality of work dominates men's autobiographies. Work was the key feature of a man's life and it was very often the motif by which male writers structured the story of their life. For most working-class men, work was equated with manhood — ‘I was a man and I knew it’. The chapter goes on to discuss how many Victorian children commenced their working lives at a considerably young age, particularly early in the reign when the place of children in the labour market was much more loosely regulated. Furthermore, to a far greater extent than girls, boys' experiences of work were shaped by the legislative framework as child labour laws became increasingly restrictive over time. This changing legal framework for child labour is clearly visible in the male autobiographies.