How should a Victorian household be run? Mrs. Beeton’s book answers every question, from the duties of the mistress and the housekeeper to the management of servants, the arrangement of the kitchen and the preparation of meals. Published in 1861, it was an immediate bestseller and sold in millions within a few years. In the cookery sections, the author follows each animal from its birth to its appearance on the table, and the book is a rich source of information about the way people ate, entertained and lived. It is also surprisingly readable, with a voice that is practical, confident and sometimes severe. A hundred and eight recordings, over fifty-eight hours, offer a vast portrait of domestic life.
Introduction
Isabella Beeton (1836-1865) was an English writer on cookery and household management. Her Book of Household Management was published in 1861, when she was in her mid-twenties, and she died only a few years later. The work, often known simply as Mrs. Beeton’s, became one of the best-selling books of the Victorian period and has stayed a reference point in the history of British cooking and domestic life.
The book is a guide to all aspects of running a household. It begins with the roles of the mistress and the housekeeper, goes on to discuss the kitchen and its equipment, and covers recipes, the care of servants, the management of children and many other subjects. The recipes are set out in a form that was then new, with a list of ingredients and an indication of time and cost, which later cookery books widely adopted.
For modern listeners, the book is interesting for many reasons. It shows what a middle-class Victorian household expected and how it was organised, and it reveals a great deal about food, class and daily routine. Some of its advice will seem amusing or dated, but it is rarely dull.
The recording is among the longest at LibriVox, with a hundred and eight files and a duration of about fifty-eight hours. It was read by a large team of volunteers. It will reward anyone who enjoys social history and the details of daily life.
Public domain
Mrs. Isabella Beeton died in 1865: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
