Useful Soup for Benevolent Purposes

At first glance, the manuals of domestic economy which began to be published in great numbers from the early nineteenth century onwards do not appear to offer much insight into the political culture of middle-class women in Britain. Indeed, the proliferation of these texts on household management had often been utilised by historians to demonstrate the dominance of domesticity in Victorian middle-class culture. ¹ Recipes from China Chilo to Scotch Rumbletethumps may not at first sight seem promising sources for analysing female political participation. However, such readings often take these manuals out of their political context and by using them largely as descriptive texts give a distorted picture both of the aspirations of the authors, and of their reception by their predominantly female readership. Commentators such as Nancy Armstrong and Mary Poovey have sought to provide a more politicised interpretation of conduct manuals (though not domestic economy books) by locating in them as evidence of the emergence of a ‘bourgeois’ subject. ² It is possible to undertake a similar ‘reading’ of texts on domestic economy. Along with the rise of the ‘domestic’ novel, these works are evidence of female authority and political power in both the public and private spheres. They demonstrate how far political concerns had penetrated the Victorian household, the endorsement of women’s education, the promotion of national and class identities, and the treatment of servants and the poor. Mrs Beeton’s recipe, ‘Useful Soup for Benevolent Purposes’ gives a hint to the rich material contained within the pages of the domestic economy books.