By Tabitha Tickletooth [Charles Selby]. Introduction by Alan Davidson. Selby, Victorian character actor and humorist, was entirely serious about his culinary and household guide written for young housewives, in spite of peppering the work with witticisms and dressing in drag for the frontispiece illustration. His book appeared at a time when middle-class couples were feeling increasingly insecure over the many details and decisions involved in running a modern household. Isabella Beeton, whose Book of Household Management was published the year after The Dinner Question, also recognized the need for an authority who could guide the uninitiated through the maze of proper household management. Although Mrs. Beeton’s book is more widely known today, Tabitha’s is much more entertaining. Only mildly tongue in cheek, she proudly asserts the book to have been “stewed down from fifty cookery books [and] seasoned with the practical knowledge derived from nearly forty years’ experience in housekeeping”; Tabitha's sage advice will soon have you believing it. Facsimile reprint. 192 pages. Softcover. Import.
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