| TOP LEFT: Wife of ladies' magazine mogul, Samuel
Beeton, Mrs. Isabelle Beeton wrote and compiled an indispensable guide for
Victorian homemakers, Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861).
Though the title may seem quaint today, the object of the book was to provide
women with useful skills that would help to make them productive managers
of the home. By boosting women's sense of self-worth and value, she contributed
to the cause of political emancipation that would follow. |
TOP RIGHT: The man peering over the shoulder
of the confident young queen is the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg,
father of the queen's eight children, and the idol of her life. Despised
as a foreigner by the average Englishman, Albert was a vigorous man of many
talents who became the queen's chief confidante and "king without a
crown" after their marriage in 1840. Victoria never recovered from
his death of typhoid fever in 1861. She retreated from public life and dressed
in mourning for many years. |
