A Victorian parenting guide with a local connection. The Mother’s Manual for the Training of Her Children by Mrs. Reed was published in London by Jarrold & Sons. It gives a candid look at 19th-century views on raising children, with chapters such as “Occasional Mistakes” and “What Should Mothers Teach Their Children?” Some of the advice still holds up. Some of it is very much of its time.
The local link is the bookseller’s ticket on the rear pastedown: John N. Birks, Bookseller and Stationer, Port Adelaide.This copy was sold in Port Adelaide, possibly around 160 years ago, and has now come back to the Semaphore and Port area. That makes it a good piece for collectors of South Australian history or early colonial bookselling.
Available at La La Vintage 67 Semaphore Road, Semaphore SA 5019 (Next to Odeon Cinema)
