Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

Yes, this is a domestic guide on how to create the ideal household, but it’s so much more than that!

I love that Beeton opens her book by comparing the mistress of the house to an army commander. The book includes hundreds of recipes, along with all kinds of domestic advice: how to hire servants, how to purchase a house, how to revive a child from a coma, how to set a broken bone, and how to treat opium overdose.

Best of all is the irony that the author of this middle-class domestic ideal worked outside the home alongside her… show more.