Husmodern

Picked up at a second-hand stall for $2, this is an absolutely ghastly book even for its time. It's published by a Swedish magazine called Husmodern- the equivalent of something like Ladies' Home Journal. They regularly produced handy little "self-help" books for the then home-bound woman. What makes it ghastly is the total lack of coherent editing- paragraphs introduced by bold small fonts, unappetizing illustrations of food protocol, actually ugly people as models. There are some official show more photographs of royalty, all portraying the perfect appropriate manner of standing, with or without hands in pockets. I started to wonder if this book in part wasn't plagiarized since the Royals being shown are British (except for Thomas Hardy- can you believe this!). It's also a sad book, reflecting a Swedish society so twisted into stylized manners that I now wonder how it could function sanely. The irony of it all is that the women reading Husmodern at this time certainly didn't even need this information, because it is highly unlikely they would ever have occasion to use it. Usually I buy these "books of old" because they are innocent and amusing. This one was a downer. show less

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HUSMODERN