Definition
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management is an instruction manual for maintaining a middle-class Victorian home. The book provides guidance directed to women about legal memoranda, real estate, recipes for various dishes, natural histories of animals, stabling horses, and suggestions for at-home healthcare. A compilation of many texts from numerous contributors, this book was Isabella Beeton’s publishing success. Readers often assume this book was written by a middle-aged housewife; however, Beeton was barely into her 20s and had been married for a short 6 months when she began compiling this classic household management guide. Mrs. Beeton inspired readers to view women as commanders of armies charged with managing a family, meal preparation, and household budgets at a time when the middle classes were becoming more urbanized and affluent.
Introduction
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, published in volume form in 1861, originated in 1859 as a series of monthly...
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References
Beeton, Isabella. 2000. In Mrs. Beeton’s book of household management, ed. Nicola Humble. Oxford: Oxford World Classics.
Broomfield, Andrea. 2007. Food and cooking in Victorian England: A history. Westport: Praeger.
Humble, Nicola. 2000. Introduction. In Mrs. Beeton’s book of household management, ed. Humble, vii–xxx. Oxford: Oxford World Classics.
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Hakimi-Hood, H. (2022). Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management (Beeton). In: Scholl, L., Morris, E. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78318-1_87
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78318-1_87
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