Much To Be Done:
Private Life in Ontario from Victorian Diaries
Frances Hoffman and Ryan Taylor

In Much to Be Done we glimpse the way life was lived in the nineteenth century, not only in the grand mansions, but in the farm houses and streets where our ancestors lived. Victorian Ontario contained people from all walks of life, from the homeless beggar to the wealthy gentry who were in a position to thumb their noses at propriety. However, it is the normal everyday events that reveal the concerns and way of life of most average people. The authors, in their search for the words of ordinary women, purposely avoided most previously published materials. This new picture includes every stratum of society, including those who left virtually no records of their own. Diaries with some contributions from letters, newspapers and reminiscences, provide a fresh and contemporary viewpoint. Much To Be Done promotes an historical understanding which links people of today with the Ontario of the past.