Mrs. Beeton's Household Management (New and Revised Edition)

BEETON, Isabella (ed.). Mrs. Beeton's Household Management. London and Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co., [c.1930s].

Thick octavo. Quarter red cloth with olive cloth panels. xvi, 1680 pp., plus 10 pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. Advertisement endpapers. 32 colour plates and nearly 700 further illustrations throughout. New edition, undated.

Isabella Mary Beeton (1836–1865) compiled The Book of Household Management from a series of monthly instalments for her husband Samuel's periodical, publishing the complete work in 1861 at the age of twenty-five; she died only four years later, at twenty-eight, having produced one of the most commercially successful and culturally influential domestic reference books in the history of English publishing. The book sold 60,000 copies in its first year alone and nearly two million by 1868, and continued to be revised, expanded, and reissued by Ward, Lock & Co. across numerous editions well into the twentieth century, this "New Edition" among them.

The scope of the work extends well beyond cookery, encompassing guidance on the full range of Victorian and Edwardian domestic management: the hiring and supervision of servants, childcare, fashion, first aid, household economy, and etiquette, alongside its extensive recipe content. Of the finished work's more than 1,600 pages, the great majority are devoted to food and its preparation. The book remains a valuable primary source for social historians studying the daily texture of middle-class British domestic life across the period of its many editions.

Very good. Some rubbing to cloth covers with some weakening at hinges (a common issue with these volumes). Some browning at edges of text block. Internally generally clean and bright, some scattered markings throughout. Coloured plates remain bright.

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Catalogue Number: HH000720