Two years ago, we moved into a house built in 1875, and bought up an armload of Victoriana books to tell us what to do with it. Most of them were "decorator porn" -- lots of gorgeous pictures (many photographing the same places) that inspire a person to go antique hunting or to refinish Aunt Martha's rocker. This book is different! It divides 70 years into 4 periods, and for each, tells you plenty about what went on the walls, on the floors,on the windows, on the ceilings. It tells how the composition of paint (and its effects) evolved over the century, recommends books for sources of historic wallpapers, and tells how to recapture Victorian room colors amidst modern lighting. Generous notes on bygone lifestyles, too, with sprinkled quotes from Charles Eastlake, Godey's Lady's Book, and other 19th century gurus of taste. If you want something to help you capture the look (or just understand it) of another century, here it is. More encyclopedic than (the also useful, but much shorter) "Creating Authentic Victorian Rooms." The downside? Very low porn quotient: No glossy paper and few colored pictures (even for contemporary photographs)--but numerous 19th-century prints and diagrams.