This is an enlarged photo-reproduction of the first edition of Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. Along with more than 1500 recipes the book includes numerous chapters on the responsibilities of the lady of a house and of all the servants. If you've been entranced by Downtown Abbey and want to know what the duties of a ladies' maid actually were, Mrs. Beeton explains it all to you and even tells you what the going wages are for each occupation! There are also household hints, an outline of legal matters the lady of the house should be familiar with, sections on care of invalids and medical conditions, etc. In other words, this is an encyclopedic work and explains why it has never gone out of fashion, even though there have been updated modern editions. Of course, if you want to know what the food was like at Downton, or at more modest establishments, and how the Victorians entertained, Mrs. Beeton answers all your questions.

Even though this book appeared in 1865, you can still cook from this book. It's one of the first truly modern cookbooks that includes lists and quantities of ingredients in a recipe and explicit instructions that don't assume the reader is already an experienced cook. Beeton includes a wide range of recipes, from traditional English foods to French, German and other Continental dishes. English food has had a reputation for being bland, but that was obviously not the case in Victorian times -- Beeton has a liberal hand with seasonings and doses almost everything (except sweets, of course) with cayenne pepper! That was reduced and even eliminated in later updates to the book, so tastes evidently evolved towards less highly seasoned dishes as Britain moved into the Edwardian Age and then the post-War world. Finally, Beeton borrowed (or rather, lifted) extensively from Eliza Acton's earlier cookbook from 1845 and this has been one of the main criticisms against her. But Acton wrote when cooking was still largely done over open fires. Beeton revised the recipes for the more modern ways of cooking that were being adopted. By Beeton's time most kitchens had ranges and a few very advanced establishments even had a gas cooker! So this required changes and adjustments to Acton's recipes. Both women, however, should be celebrated, because they catalogued and standardized British cooking and ensured that its traditions would come down, virtually intact, to our own day. Of course, both books also deeply influenced American cooking and cookbooks, so on both sides of the pond we are all indebted to these two young women (both died young) who created the first modern cookbooks.

This is a review for the ebook only. I wanted to get the ebook first because of bad reviews that I read about the hard-copy's quality so I could decide whether to get the hardcopy or not but the ebook doesn't have ANY of the illustrations AT ALL!! I needed the book for a dollhouse that I am decorating that I wanted to be accurate so the illustrations are very important but since it doesn't have any it's sort of useless for me. At the beginning the chart of wages is completely confusing because the formatting is terrible.

fascinating reading, very educational. This book gives highly detailed accounts of the running households large and small in the Victorian era. From hiring a butler or housekeeper, to how much to pay your maid of all work, to how to manage your household expenses, whatever they be, this was a fascinating look at the minutiae of 19th century domestic life. Where else will you find instructions for how rent a nice house, how to write and accept a dinner invitation, what calling cards to leave, and when to leave them. This is a massive volume, and I am looking forward to all of the rest of it.

I have seen an original hard cover copy and it really felt old and special. This soft cover not so much.

May never actually cook the recipes, but it is such a learning experience in history, cooking, and editing (all these recipes were from many different households of the time).

I first read this book on my Kindle, but there were no pictures, so I ordered it in hardback. This book is fascinating, full of everything a young homemaker of the time would need to know. Recipes galore, but also what part each servant would play in the household, how to treat illnesses and how to hold a dinner party - and much more! Mrs. Beeson added a description of each animal, vegetable and fruit, giving a description of each and also its history. At over 600 pages, it pretty well covers it all, and I enjoy reading it so much, I am reading it for the second time!

Excellent book, but this is the abridged version. Some recipes have been edited out that I wish had not.

first heart of this book in a tv series called 1900 House by PBS.
everything you could or would need to know about running a household in the mid to late 1800s wonderful facimile.