The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives

"Steve!" she cried, "you are devouring me!" The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives is Elizabeth Strong Worthington's follow-up to her comic guide book, How to Cook Husbands. This time, the spoon points to the man in the kitchen, and the book tells how he should make a dish of his wife. A wife is never to be raked over the coals, for example. And he'd best keep a lid on troubles at home: "If a wife is allowed to boil at all, she will always boil over." The table is set with two romances that illustrate how the advice works. One is the continuing affair of Constance Leigh and Randolph Chance from How to Cook Husbands. The other is a tale of odd fusion between the "unbaked" Nannie Branscome and chicken farmer Steve Loveland. One line describes their relationship (and the taste of the book): "'When are you going to let go of my nose, Nannie?' he said in his accustomed quiet tone." Worthington's humor is surprisingly contemporary, and her advice still works for any man who wants to get steamy.