Book Review: The Housekeeper's Tale

The Housekeeper's Tale by Tessa Boase

 

The Housekeeper's Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House by Tessa Boase is a light but informative exploration of the real lives of five 19th-20th century British housekeepers.  

The book has 289 pages, divided into five chapters with an introduction and an epilogue. Each chapter functions as a case study following one housekeeper in one country house. Arranged chronologically, the first chapter opens in 1832 (though the woman in question began working at that house in 1818), and the last chapter follows a career of 1920-1971. The prologue uses an 1890 advertisement for a housekeeper to introduce the occupation and its qualifications, while the epilogue follows a present-day (2013) housekeeper working in a historic country house. There are sixteen pages of photographs in the center of the book, showing the different houses, the housekeepers (where possible) and some of the documents and artifacts which informed the book. Many of the original images are black and white, but the modern ones are in color.

The author is a journalist by trade, which really shows up in the writing: she crafts an eminently readable narrative, albeit one which occasionally speculates about the housekeepers' thoughts and reactions. I think the latter is good interpretation that causes the reader to empathize with the housekeepers' experiences, but it's also something to keep in mind when using the book for reference. Although the work is based on primary sources including letters, diaries, account books, newspaper articles, and contemporary advice books, it doesn't have the density of citations per page that one finds in most academic writing.

I found this an enjoyable and informative book, and a quick read. The one aspect that I question is the choice of the five cases. While the idea of the Victorian housekeeper is routinely invoked, all of the five real-life example are substantial exceptions to that archetype. For example, while it is repeatedly stated that housekeepers were expected to leave service upon marriage, three of the five examples used here are women who were married with children while working as housekeepers; the only "spinster" housekeepers were one who ended up prosecuted for theft, and the one whose short tenure was exclusively during the house's use as a World War I hospital. And while I think this points to a larger theme that no one really fits a single mold, it also feels like the selected case studies are not necessarily representative examples. But then, per the Laurel Thatcher Ulrich quote, a 'well-behaved' woman following her expected role does not leave documentation the way a more disruptive one does.

 

Score: 4 stars as a book (3.5 as reference material)

Accuracy: The book delves into some interesting and otherwise inaccessible (manuscript) primary sources, but you do need to keep an eye out for the inventive and speculative reconstructions. 

Strongest Impression: An informative but not taxing read, and definitely the better sort of popular history book. Useful background reading for housekeeping, and especially for the changes which British domestic service underwent from c.1830-1970, but I wouldn't use this as the sole source for an impression.