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sueperlibrarian 's review for:
Miss Eliza's English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship
by Annabel Abbs-Streets
Thanks to NetGalley for this advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
Eliza Acton is a pioneer in cooking writing. Her cookbooks, from Victorian era England, were much like Julia child of her day. The cookbooks were widely published as a way to bring English cookery to the more common home. Little is know about the woman, but Abbs takes what is known and builds this historical fiction around her life and the writing of the now famous cookbooks. Working with an assistant, of whom little is known at all, Eliza works through the concepts, the recipes, and execution with a nod to her poetry style.
The book was interesting with heavy leanings on women’s lives in Victorian England, their expectations to become wives and mothers and to not pursue manly jobs. This book was very much about Ann and Eliza following their respective dreams regardless of what their parents or neighbors expected of them.
I yearned for recipes to glance over. They are discussed, but how wonderful to see her recipes in print, it would have been! Luckily I found that the library’s Hoopla account has her book! I spend too much time flipping though the pages or her cookbook or through Wikipedia to find out more.
It’s sad we don’t really know more about Eliza because the novel might have been more intriguing. But suffice it to say that this novel is pleasant and sheds light on a character we would never have known otherwise.
3.5*
Eliza Acton is a pioneer in cooking writing. Her cookbooks, from Victorian era England, were much like Julia child of her day. The cookbooks were widely published as a way to bring English cookery to the more common home. Little is know about the woman, but Abbs takes what is known and builds this historical fiction around her life and the writing of the now famous cookbooks. Working with an assistant, of whom little is known at all, Eliza works through the concepts, the recipes, and execution with a nod to her poetry style.
The book was interesting with heavy leanings on women’s lives in Victorian England, their expectations to become wives and mothers and to not pursue manly jobs. This book was very much about Ann and Eliza following their respective dreams regardless of what their parents or neighbors expected of them.
I yearned for recipes to glance over. They are discussed, but how wonderful to see her recipes in print, it would have been! Luckily I found that the library’s Hoopla account has her book! I spend too much time flipping though the pages or her cookbook or through Wikipedia to find out more.
It’s sad we don’t really know more about Eliza because the novel might have been more intriguing. But suffice it to say that this novel is pleasant and sheds light on a character we would never have known otherwise.
3.5*