NONFICTION - Sept. 1, 1991

A MEDIEVAL HOME COMPANION: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century by Tania Bayaard (HarperCollins: $19.95; 160 pp.) This is a serious academic work--a translation of a guide written by an elderly Parisian in about 1393 for his 15-year-old wife, who needed to be tutored in proper behavior, both moral and domestic. It is a fascinating document of life in the Middle Ages, but the interesting question is: Who is the target reader beyond the lover of history? Today’s middle-aged woman, faced with a post-feminist backlash that blames the women’s movement for misleading younger women as to the virtues of career, may find that the text makes her blood pressure rise. On the other hand, this could be the perfectly wicked gift for the distaff side of a May-December romance.