During the 1880's, The Girl's Own Paper featured several serialized "stories" by Dora Hope that followed the housekeeping adventures of "Margaret Trent." In reality, these series offered detailed lessons to the reader on how to keep house, furnish a new home, handle cooking and cleaning chores, and much more. Other authors offered similar series in later years. Today, they provide a wealth of detail on how to set up and manage a proper Victorian home!

Mrs. MacClarty - Scenes from the Cottagers of Glenburnie (Chambers Miscellany, 1845)

This appears to be an educational piece thinly veiled as fiction, and offers much information on cottage life in the 1840's.

The Difficulties of a Young Housekeeper, and How She Overcame Them, by Dora Hope (Girl's Own Paper, 1881)

Margaret Trent, and How She Kept House, by Dora Hope (Girl's Own Paper, 1882)

Margaret's Neighbors, by Dora Hope (Girl's Own Paper, 1883)

Margaret helps her young neighbors set up and furnish their home.

Graduates in Housekeeping, and How They Qualified, by Dora Hope (Girl's Own Paper, 1884)

"She Couldn't Boil a Potato," by Dora Hope (Girl's Own Paper, 1887)

Or, "The Ignorant Housekeeper, and How She Acquired Knowledge."

The Brothers' Benefactor, by Dora Hope (Girl's Own Paper, 1888)

The Girl-Brides of Hild's Haven, by Lucy Yates (Girl's Own Paper, 1896)

In the vein of Dora Hope's "housekeeping" tales, this also presents the art of maintaining a home in the guise of fiction.

Winifred's Home, by Josepha Crane (Girl's Own Paper, 1896)

Another young housekeeper learns the ropes. (See also Winifred's Wardrobe.)