The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton
By Kathryn Hughes
I borrowed this book from Mat’s mom when we were with them a few weeks ago. And, to be honest, if I had had something else to read, I might never have finished the first chapter. But having read the whole thing, I’m glad I persevered. And I think some of you who read here might also find it enjoyable.
The book is sort of a cross between a biography of Isabella Beeton and a history of her Book of Household Management and the Beeton “brand”. It starts somewhat tediously with a long accounting of Isabella’s parents and grandparents, as well as those of her husband. This information becomes important later, particularly for the sense it gives of the shifts in class and social position, as well as geographical location, that it provides. It also illustrates well the shifts in the relationship between home and workplace, and consequently the shifts in women’s relationship to productive work (especially in the middle class). These details become important later and the memory of them adds depth and detail to one of Hughes main arguments regarding late 20th century readings of Beeton. But, as I said, at the time it was a bit difficult.
As the book progresses, it becomes more interesting. I will admit to a longstanding interest in gender and family and how both change. (I could, and did, write a thesis on aspects of that.) The detailed focus on one woman and her family relationships throughout her life is very interesting, not least because Isabella Beeton was atypical (in her own time, and in relation to how we normally think of middle-class Victorian womanhood).
But even more interesting is the detail of the nature of publishing in this period (approx. 1850 – 1880). This is a time when women’s magazines are developing and Sam Beeton, Isabella’s husband, is at the centre of it. (His innovations also extend to the very successful “Boy’s Own Magazine” but there is less detail about this particular publication.) The ways in which the Beetons experiment with different forms and different markets provide a historical context for the proliferation of women’s magazines (and other media) in our own time.
Also important are the different publishing conventions of the time. Copyright is much more slippery with consequences for how books get written and published. The detailed archaeology of the content of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, with attention to changes in significant later editions, gives a different perspective on the authority of the text. Hughes pays particular attention to how cultural shifts in the value given to “the author” and how this affects the ways in which Beeton is received in different decades.
For those with an interest in the history of domesticity and domestic advice, it is well worth pushing through the beginning of this book.
