The short life & long times of Mrs Beeton / Kathryn Hughes.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Isabella Beeton was not quite the familiar matronly figure that has kept her name resonating over the past 150 years. She was actually only twenty-one when she sat down to write The Book of Household Management, with just six months experience of running her own home behind her. Instead of presiding over a well-run town house or country manor, Isabella and her charismatic husband Sam lived in a suburban semi with a single maid-of-all-work. Crucial new material unearthed by Kathryn Hughes shows a woman struggling with every kind of trauma: bankruptcy, sexual scandal and a bitter family feud that lasted over a century." "In this biography, Kathryn Hughes shines a light into the chasm that lay between Mrs. Beeton's private and public life, and explores just how a young woman who died at the age of twenty-eight managed to become one of the most powerful cultural icons of all time."--BOOK JACKET.