To have not known that Mrs Beeton died at 28?

[QueenOfTheAndals]

I fell down a Wikipedia hole, wound up on her page and saw she was only 28 when she died. I always assumed she was an plump elderly housewife, not a young woman who didn't even make it to 30. Apparently her husband gave her syphillis and she lost several children before dying of puerperal fever, poor woman.

YANBU. I thought the same as you.

Yanbu. I had always made the same assumptions as you.

Ah, I didn't know that, poor woman. I grew up using my mum's battered Mrs Beetons book.

I thought she was a fictional character.

She also didn't cook. The book is apparently a collection of recipes and housekeeping instructions put together by Mr Beeton and attributed to his much younger wife.

I didn't know that either InfiniteSheldon.

I imagined exactly the same as you, OP. Nor did I know that the book was actually Mr Beeton's.

Not sure how I feel about kitchen tips from some bloke that gave his missus a fatal std now.......

God, that poor woman!

Oh wow. Used to have battered copy grown up, they was an older pinnybwrsrinn lady on front so you just presume.

It is highly likely that she had syphilis, caught from her husband on honeymoon according to several biographers. This resulted in several miscarriages and I think it caused the early death of one of her children. She must have had a miserable time of it and I believe in a way she wrote her book to try and help other women and improve their lives. Her reasons for writing the book may have been totally different, but I have known her sad story for a few years and it crossed my mind when I first read about her.

Mmmm. Household tips from the syphilitic
Mr Beeton. Niiiice.

*pinny wearing lady

I did know this funnily enough.

I recall Mrs B writing that if one has not done 50% of one's work by 10am then one is in danger of not completing it at all!

And that housemaids should rise at 5am, or 6am in winter.

I myself rise at 8.45am and start work at 10am. Often I go to bed about 5am!

I did not know that. But if it was written by the syphillitic Mr Beeton, that explains a lot about the "how to treat your servants" chapter (not that Victorian middle class women weren't rotten to their servants, but knowing that the author was male somehow makes it read differently).

I actually did know that . It is shocking though. How did she manage to write all those books at that age? Poor woman though.

Oooooh so she did write them? Did not know that!

Didn’t*

Her skill was as an editor/writer, not a cook or household manager. She was very ahead of her time.

How did she manage to write all those books at that age?

Copy and paste from other writers apparently. The skill was in the presentation.

No it was written by her. But most of it was stolen from other books. Read her autobiography. She was a very smart businesswoman who worked incredibly hard and died young, probably from syphilis. But she put together the book, not her husband. Her husband helped her get it published.

Biography, not autobiography. Wikipedia is not an accurate source of information.

Bit harsh blaming the husband for giving her syphillis- I'm sure it wasn't intentional!

She was a journalist.
www.theguardian.com/books/2005/oct/15/featuresreviews.guardianreview33

I knew she died young, but I thought she had TB. Off to read about her now.