 In 1857 , less than a year after the wedding , Isabella began writing for one of her husband 's publications , The Englishwoman 's Domestic Magazine . She translated French fiction and wrote the cookery column , though all the recipes were <unk> from other works or sent in by the magazine 's readers . In 1859 the Beetons launched a series of 48 @-@ page monthly supplements to The Englishwoman 's Domestic Magazine ; the 24 instalments were published in one volume as Mrs Beeton 's Book of Household Management in October 1861 , which sold 60 @,@ 000 copies in the first year . Isabella was working on an abridged version of her book , which was to be titled The Dictionary of Every @-@ Day Cookery , when she died of <unk> fever in February 1865 at the age of 28 . She gave birth to four children , two of whom died in infancy , and had several miscarriages . Two of her biographers , Nancy Spain and <unk> Hughes , <unk> the theory that Samuel had unknowingly contracted syphilis in a premarital liaison with a prostitute , and had unwittingly passed the disease on to his wife . 
