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THE FEASTS
OF AUTOLYCUS
THE DIARY OF A GREEDY WOMAN
EDITED
BY ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL
AKRON, O.
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO NEW YORK
1900
Copyright, 1896,
By the merriam company.
Note.—These papers were first published in the"Pall Mall Gazette," under the heading, "Wares ofAutolycus." It is due to the courteous permission ofthe editors of that Journal that they are now re-issuedin book form.
INTRODUCTION
I have always wondered that woman could beso glib in claiming equality with man. Insuch trifling matters as politics and science andindustry, I doubt if there be much to choosebetween the two sexes. But in the cultivationand practice of an art which concerns life moreseriously, woman has hitherto proved an inferiorcreature.
For centuries the kitchen has been her appointedsphere of action. And yet, here, as inthe studio and the study, she has allowed manto carry off the laurels. Vatel, Carême, Ude,Dumas, Gouffé, Etienne, these are some of theimmortal cooks of history: the kitchen stillwaits its Sappho. Mrs Glasse, at first, mightbe thought a notable exception; but it is not somuch the merit of her book as its extreme rarityin the first edition which has made it famous.
Woman, moreover, has eaten with as little6distinction as she has cooked. It seems almost—muchas I deplore the admission—as if shewere of coarser clay than man, lacking themore artistic instincts, the subtler, daintieremotions.
I think, therefore, the great interest of thefollowing papers lies in the fact that they arewritten by a woman—a greedy woman. Thecollection, evidently, does not pretend to be a"Cook's Manual," or a "Housewife's Companion":already the diligent, in numbers, havecatalogued recipes, with more or less exactness.It is rather a guide to the Beauty, the Poe