The Book of Household Management

About this book

Isabella Beeton's great book covers everything a Victorian household needed to know: how to manage servants and accounts, how to entertain and arrange a dinner, how to care for children and the sick, and, above all, how to cook, with nearly a thousand recipes for soups, fish, meat, puddings, preserves and drinks. Its recipes were among the first to list the ingredients first, with the cost, the time needed and the number of people served, a model still followed by cookbooks today.

Context and significance

Beeton (1836–1865) wrote it in her early twenties for the magazine published by her husband, and it appeared as a book in 1861; she died at twenty-eight, but her name became synonymous with domestic advice. It is a window into Victorian daily life. For manners at table and elsewhere, read Emily Post's Etiquette.

About the author