Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management: Abridged edition (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Beeton, Isabella

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199536333 ISBN 13: 9780199536337

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

An almost forgotten classic though a founding text of Victorian middle-class identity,Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management is a volume of insight and common sense. Written by what one might now describe as a Victorian Martha Stewart, the book offers advice on fashion, child-care, animal husbandry, poisons, and the management of servants. To the modern reader expecting stuffy verbosity or heavy moralizing, Beeton's book is a revelation: it explores the foods of Europe and beyond, suggesting new food stuffs and techniques, mixing domestic advice with discussions of science, religion, class, industrialism and gender roles. Alternately frugal and fashionable, anxious and self confident, the book highlights the concerns of the growing Victorian middle-class at a key moment in its history. This abridged edition serves as a cookery book, while documenting a significant aspect of Victorian social and cultural history.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

About this title

About the Author:

Nicola Humble, Senior Lecturer, Roehampton Institute, London.

Review:

`conveys a wonderful insight into Victorian life.'
Marguerite Patten, Saga, July 2000

`The book is a great reference for classic British food'
Restaurant

'It could well turn out to be the surprise bestseller of 2000,answering as it does the new hunger for real cooking ....[it] exactly captures our longing for a return to the real thing.' Kathryn Hughes, The Observer, 2.1.2000

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0199536333
• ISBN 13: 9780199536337
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 672
• Editor: Humble Nicola