CURRENT LITERATURE.
We have received a new edition of The Book of Household Manage- ment, by Mrs. Isabella Beeton. (Ward, Lock, and Co.)—The edition is described on the title-page as being "entirely new, revised, corrected, and greatly enlarged." We find, for instance, that the comparative novelty of New Zealand mutton is noticed. More, perhaps, might have been said about it with advantage to the housekeeper. In the matter of meat, we would especially commend to the reader sections 1057-1061. That on "relative cost" contains valuable facts. Housekeepers who ought to know better persist in buying so unprofitable a joint as the neck. "Boiled or roasted," says Mrs. Beeton, "the neck is not a very cheap joint; but trimmed into cutlets, with all the fat removed, it is probably the dearest butcher's meat that can be eaten." "Household management" includes, of course, many things besides instructions for the buying and preparing of food. Hints about servants, about clothing, about the management of the nursery and children's amusements, even about legal matters, are given. The result is a very useful book.—We have also received the issue for 1889 of Stowell's Housekeeping Account-Book. (J. S. Virtue.)—Every item of expenditure has a heading under which it should be entered. We observe that "bookseller and stationer" fills one line. " Bookseller " might almost have been retrenched, so few people buy books. The "Account-Book," however, appears to be made for America, if we are to judge from the word "Can " in the last line. Any house- keeper who would diligently and faithfully enter every item of her expenditure under its proper head, and go on doing this through- out the year—zealous beginnings both in account-keeping and other matters are apt to fall off very sadly—would be a crown to her husband. Unfortunately, women, for the most part, will not keep accounts, perhaps cannot. A great improvement in this " Account-Book " would be the addition of a few blank pages.
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