The rise and fall of the Victorian servant
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The rise and fall of the Victorian servant
A. Sutton, 1995, c1990
- : [pbk]
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Note
Reprint. Originally published: [Dublin] : Gill and MacMillan, 1975
First published in the United Kingdom in this edition: [Gloucestershire] : A. Sutton, 1990
"First published in paperback in this edition in 1995"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-248) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Victorian England measured social acceptability in terms of the number of servants employed in a household. This frequently overlooked body of workers actually formed the largest occupational group in the country by the end of the 19th century. In this account, the author draws on contemporary sources, including "servants' books" and personal reminiscences of servants and employers, to offer a record of recruitment and training; the duties expected of servants; and the range of conditions under which they worked - some of which led to happy retirement, others to prostitution or squalid death. Complemented with photographs, "Punch" illustrations and other ephemera, the book offers a picture of this vanished social system.
Table of Contents
- The origins of domestic service. Part 1 Servant heyday: the servant-keeping classes and their problems
- getting a place
- the daily round - female servants
- the daily round - male servants
- social life - "below stairs"
- employer-servant relations
- misdoings and misdemeanours. Part 2 Years of decline - the new century: the winds of change, 1900-14
- the final phase. Appendices: domestic servant wage rates
- the duties of servants
- ladies' maids
- reminiscences of domestic servants between the wars
- the servants' hall
- the employers' point of view
- servant numbers in Victorian England and Wales.
by "Nielsen BookData"