What the Butler Saw

Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the Servant Problem

Nonfiction, History
Cover of the book What the Butler Saw by E. S. Turner, Faber & Faber
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Author: E. S. Turner ISBN: 9780571295180
Publisher: Faber & Faber Publication: May 15, 2012
Imprint: Faber & Faber Language: English
Author: E. S. Turner
ISBN: 9780571295180
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication: May 15, 2012
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Language: English

'A book which goes on a special shelf in my library.' P.G. Wodehouse

What the Butler Saw (1962) is one of E.S. Turner's most pertinent and illuminating 'social histories', an exploration of the 'upstairs/downstairs' relationship across three centuries of English life. Drawing on literature, contemporary accounts and household manuals, Turner describes in fascinating detail how it came to be that the upper classes felt a need for an ever larger household staff, engaged in every imaginable form of drudgery; and, accordingly, how those in service - from high to low, butler to footman, housemaid to au pair - had to give satisfaction to their masters and mistresses while also, on occasions, contending with physical blows, tantrums, and (in the cases of some unfortunate servant girls) threats to their virtue.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

'A book which goes on a special shelf in my library.' P.G. Wodehouse

What the Butler Saw (1962) is one of E.S. Turner's most pertinent and illuminating 'social histories', an exploration of the 'upstairs/downstairs' relationship across three centuries of English life. Drawing on literature, contemporary accounts and household manuals, Turner describes in fascinating detail how it came to be that the upper classes felt a need for an ever larger household staff, engaged in every imaginable form of drudgery; and, accordingly, how those in service - from high to low, butler to footman, housemaid to au pair - had to give satisfaction to their masters and mistresses while also, on occasions, contending with physical blows, tantrums, and (in the cases of some unfortunate servant girls) threats to their virtue.

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