S/O Reading Pet Peeves - How Accurate is This Book?

[Twik]

It's one thing to admit that love conquered all yesterday as today. However, serious books should reflect the differences of the era. If abortion was a common means of birth control for Russian women in Stalinist Russia, that should be given at least a passing mention in the book. An awful lot of romance authors treat pregnancy as something that only happens when convenient.

[Nora]

And thanks to this thread I now understand the previously baffling comment the squires wife made in Lark Rise to Candleford; " how long will you wait?". Said to her husband in a panicked voice after it turns out she wasn't pregnant as she thought. I was all whaaaaaa? So...there's my mind enlightened, and that plot angle makes sense. Yay!

[Leafy]

Wow! Thanks everyone. I've learnt so much. I feel like Tatiana had very 21st century attitude but now I can see that it could have happened as presented.

[lady_disdain]

I also think people would know that the Lord of the Manor couldn't  have a Bible small enough to sit on his bedside table., but  maybe I'm just nit-picking on that one.

You are nit-picking that one. I am assuming that the reason the lord of the manor can't have a small bible is because the printing press wasn't invented yet? Because that is the only thing I could come up with and I wouldn't even have thought of it if you didn't post here. 

Smaller books did exist. However, a bedside table probably didn't and reading in bed I am quite certain not (little artificial light, heavy books, etc).

[Elfmama]

One of my pet annoyances is one of the 'Brother Cadfeal' books where there's a major inaccuracy which basically drives a coach and horses through the plot. (Deliberately vague to avoid spoiling it for others)

Is that the one that had to do with a shoeprint?  Because I caught that one too.

[scotcat60]

You are nit-picking that one. I am assuming that the reason the lord of the manor can't have a small bible is because the printing press wasn't invented yet? Because that is the only thing I could come up with and I wouldn't even have thought of it if you didn't post here. 

I actuallly hadn't thought of the printing press angle, just that Bibles were usually huge illuminated hadn written things chained up in churches and monasteries. Books of Hours could be small.

[Thipu1]

One of my pet annoyances is one of the 'Brother Cadfeal' books where there's a major inaccuracy which basically drives a coach and horses through the plot. (Deliberately vague to avoid spoiling it for others)

Is that the one that had to do with a shoeprint?  Because I caught that one too.

Why would a shoe print be a problem? 

[lady_disdain]

You are nit-picking that one. I am assuming that the reason the lord of the manor can't have a small bible is because the printing press wasn't invented yet? Because that is the only thing I could come up with and I wouldn't even have thought of it if you didn't post here. 

I actuallly hadn't thought of the printing press angle, just that Bibles were usually huge illuminated hadn written things chained up in churches and monasteries. Books of Hours could be small.

Yep. I thought of a Book of Hours or Psalms as well. However, the idea of reading in bed at that time is a lot more anachronistic than the book itself.

[Elfmama]

One of my favorites hit the very first line of the story: "The horses seemed to sense the trap laid before them, hesitated, and began to gallop backwards."

[Sharnita]

I agree with the poster who mentioned that the Russian revolution would have actively encouraged people to reject traditional religious views and rules.

[Elisabunny]

The statistics I read were that 25% of first born children in the Victorian era were born out of wedlock and 25% were born less than nine months after the wedding.

However, a certain percentage of those less-than-nine-months babies were in fact premature.  They didn't have the ability to stop early labor.  My great-aunt's first child was born 7 months after the wedding (1940s).  She was miserable thinking that people would assume they had "anticipated" the wedding, even though the baby fit in a shoe box and only survived because she was a nurse.


eta: I was one generation off, so this would have happened in the 1910s or '20s.

[Outdoor Girl]

I was reading a romance novel - I think it was a Nora Roberts one, set in Alaska.

They had the heroine up in a plane, looking at a herd of moose.  I howled.  Moose are very solitary creatures.  Calves stick with mom and twins might hang out together for a while their first year or two away from mom but otherwise, they are on their own.  I figured out that she meant caribou, which would herd and would be much more prevalent than moose in Alaska, if there are even moose in Alaska at all.

[Carotte]

Oh, I've got one, in Dracula by Bram Stoker, Van Helsing does a whole lot of coming and going between Amsterdam (I think) and London in what is described as mere hours, was that possible?

[afbluebelle]

I was reading a romance novel - I think it was a Nora Roberts one, set in Alaska.

They had the heroine up in a plane, looking at a herd of moose.  I howled.  Moose are very solitary creatures.  Calves stick with mom and twins might hang out together for a while their first year or two away from mom but otherwise, they are on their own.  I figured out that she meant caribou, which would herd and would be much more prevalent than moose in Alaska, if there are even moose in Alaska at all.

There are a crudload of moose in Alaska. We had a small family that would be jerks and trap us in our barracks during the winter. The dumb things would stand right in front of the doors.  I think they secretly got a kick out of watching airmen have to jump out of windows to get to work.

[Outdoor Girl]

Hmmm...  I wonder if Alaskan moose are different than Ontario moose.