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A review by sammilittlejohns
The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess by Kathryn Hughes
3.0
I thought this was an incredibly well researched piece, and very nicely written, that's why I've given this book 3 stars. However it sometimes read as a history of Victorian publications rather than a biography of Mrs Beeton. I know the author had to combat a lack of material when it came to this, however it just segued off into random facts about newspapers and Samuel Beeton that I thought could have been either removed completely or cut down massively.
Love Kathryn Hughes work, especially Victorians Undone, and I do appreciate the topic of the book and that you can write something about Isabella Beeton even if you know very little about her. I wish she had incorporated the Interludes more in the actual writing itself, as those few pages between each chapter was more interesting and relevant to Mrs Beeton and the context of her time period rather than random facts about how well different papers sold.
I think in general this was just a very difficult topic to write anything about, and in reality if you just wanted to focus solely on Isabella's life, you may have a book 150 pages long. That being said, I'd much rather have read 150 interesting pages than the 400, although well written, sometimes boring facts that fluffed out this biography.
Love Kathryn Hughes work, especially Victorians Undone, and I do appreciate the topic of the book and that you can write something about Isabella Beeton even if you know very little about her. I wish she had incorporated the Interludes more in the actual writing itself, as those few pages between each chapter was more interesting and relevant to Mrs Beeton and the context of her time period rather than random facts about how well different papers sold.
I think in general this was just a very difficult topic to write anything about, and in reality if you just wanted to focus solely on Isabella's life, you may have a book 150 pages long. That being said, I'd much rather have read 150 interesting pages than the 400, although well written, sometimes boring facts that fluffed out this biography.