Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management - Legacy

Legacy

The book gives a historically significant insight into Victorian domestic management. Although it is not a modern book, many people in Britain own a copy as it has been frequently reprinted and is available to this day. The name "Mrs Beeton" still has iconic status in Britain: most people recognize it and know its connotations, although very few have actually come into contact with the book itself. The phrase "first, catch your hare", while popularly thought to originate here, was already proverbial when the book was written.

Today's superstar chefs (especially Delia Smith) might be seen as the direct descendants of Mrs Beeton, who saw as they did the need to provide reassuring advice on culinary matters for the British middle classes, the Industrial Revolution having sealed the demise of traditional rural cooking skills.

Its preface begins:

I must frankly own, that if I had known, beforehand, that this book would have cost me the labour which it has, I should never have been courageous enough to commence it. What moved me, in the first instance, to attempt a work like this, was the discomfort and suffering which I had seen brought upon men and women by household mismanagement. I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a housewife's badly-cooked dinners and untidy ways.

A chapter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus is entitled Concerning Mrs. Beeton.