I recently bought a modern copy of this Mrs Beeton classic in a charity shop, mainly because I wanted to make a ‘book bag’ and it was the right sort of shape. I made the bag using just the cover from the book, which left all the pages.
I began to read and it got me thinking. The language used, the strange recipes and the management issues that were apparently of great concern to Victorian ladies are so alien to us. Mrs Beeton’s domestic world does not exist any more, but what has replaced it?
The work here is a tentative initial exploration of the role of woman in the domestic environment. What is the domestic environment anyway? This is just a beginning. After all, there were 1112 pages in my copy of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management!
I began to read and it got me thinking. The language used, the strange recipes and the management issues that were apparently of great concern to Victorian ladies are so alien to us. Mrs Beeton’s domestic world does not exist any more, but what has replaced it?
The work here is a tentative initial exploration of the role of woman in the domestic environment. What is the domestic environment anyway? This is just a beginning. After all, there were 1112 pages in my copy of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management!