Overview

'an Indian household can no more be governed peacefully, without dignity and prestige, than an Indian Empire' InThe Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook (1888) Flora Annie Steel and her co-author Grace Gardiner provide practical, and often highly opinionated, advice to young memsahibs in India. They explain how to 'make a hold' over servants, how to establish and stock a storeroom, how to plan a menu, manage young children, treat bites from 'mad, or even doubtful dogs', and teach an Indian cook how to make fish quenelles. The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook promised its reader a comprehensive guide to domesticitiy in India, even if she found herself living in camps or in the jungle, on the hills or in the plains, whether she was the wife of an influential Indian Civil Servant or a missionary. This new edition, complete with its stimulating introduction and substantial notes, makes available a classic domestic work that in detailing the memsahib's role in the household sheds light on the entire imperial experience. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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9780199605767

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'fascinating, immensely detailed...a priceless insight into the mindset and even the character of those women out there,imposing their will and their ways amid the alien corn surrounding them.' * Martin Rubin, Washington Times, 4/6/2010 * Review from previous edition 'The cream of the crop of the recent historical [coookery] reprintsThe Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook aimed to do for memsahibs what Mrs Beeton had done for their stay-at-home sisters...Their mission, to create a domestic space that was forever Wiltshire, throws a bright light on the larger project of which they were part, that of running the British empire.' * Kathryn Hughes, Guardian, 19/6/2010 *

Review from previous edition 'The cream of the crop of the recent historical [coookery] reprintsThe Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook aimed to do for memsahibs what Mrs Beeton had done for their stay-at-home sisters...Their mission, to create a domestic space that was forever Wiltshire, throws a bright light on the larger project of which they were part, that of running the British empire.' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian, 19/6/2010 'fascinating, immensely detailed...a priceless insight into the mindset and even the character of those women out there,imposing their will and their ways amid the alien corn surrounding them.' Martin Rubin, Washington Times, 4/6/2010

Author Information

Both authors were married to members of the Indian Civil Service and lived and travelled in India with their families for more than two decades. The senior partner, Flora Annie Steel took a strong interest in Indian life, learned to speak, read, and write Punjabi and committed to improving the lives of the local native women. She helped to establish schools and served on the Provincial Education Board. She also wrote stories for children and novels including her best-known novel on the Indian Mutiny, On the Face of the Waters.

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