A review by tessisreading2
The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess by Kathryn Hughes

3.0

As other readers have mentioned, very very long and with a tendency to wander off on long digressions, some of which - e.g. the detailed discussions of Isabella's family - I found interesting, and others - e.g. the overview of fictionalized depictions of the Beetons throughout the twentieth century - less so. Isabella Beeton's life was so short that she herself had little to do with the book's wild success and development, but I felt like the book kind of ran out of steam when she died; the history of the Beeton publishing enterprises was much less interesting, and Hughes (like many previous biographers, it seems) didn't particularly like Sam Beeton. One horrifying fact I did learn from this particular book, though, is that it seems like mid-Victorians who didn't have syphilis were the exception to the rule. Ugh, history!