Victorian Servants, A Very Peculiar History电子书

Cover

Front Matter

Title Page

Publisher Information

Dedication

Victorian Servants

Quotes

INTRODUCTION: ‘The greatest plague in life’*

Without whom…

Worn out and thrown away

CHAPTER ONE: ‘Domestics no longer know their place’

Faces in the crowd

‘Numerous and universal’

Out of sight, out of mind?

The ‘servant question’

A terrible, tragic revenge

‘Dependent on servants’

The cost of (genteel) living

Why be a servant?

CHAPTER TWO: The best circles

False impressions?

Maid – or horse?

Domestic duties

Situations vacant: Female

Situations vacant: Male

Overcrowded!

Content to serve

CHAPTER THREE: Dinner is served

The perks of the job

Help at hand

A kitchen maid’s day

Foods for a buffet supper

Fact and fantasy

A day’s meals

Kitchen or laboratory?

Changing food fashions

Service à la russe

CHAPTER FOUR: Personal services

A gentleman’s gentleman

A word of warning

Helpless!

The worm that turned

Airs and graces

Layers and layers

Crowning glories

Trusted with treasures

Tea and sympathy

Temptations

Back down to earth

CHAPTER FIVE: Home, sweet home?

Victorian servant joke no. 1

First steps

Tricked and trapped

Not proud

Round the clock

How to make beds – Victorian style

Victorian servant joke no. 2

So lonely

Victorian servant joke no. 3

Don’t let them in!

Victorian servant joke no. 4

Weekly tasks

Fact and fiction

Seeking and hoping

A home of her own!

CHAPTER SIX: ‘Sedentary, Solitary, Constrained, Joyless, Toilsome’*

Lost and gone

Doomed to be a governess?

Anything else?

Meanwhile…

A governess’s day

Essential equipment

Joining in?

CHAPTER SEVEN: Down on the farm

Food and farming

Cosy cottages?

Home on the farm

Worth every penny!

Bottom of the heap

Ideal home vs. rough reality

No time to rest?

The Scranky Farmer

On the move

Cut and run

CHAPTER EIGHT: A good character

A real ‘lady’?

Band of brothers… and sisters

Strange but true no. 1

Into service

Seek and find

Strange but true no. 2

Away from home – alone

Strange but true no. 3

Onwards and upwards

CHAPTER NINE: Them & us

Not like us

Coarse and common

Disgraceful!

Not seen, not heard

Keep your distance

For servants:

A delicate question

For employers:

What’s in a name?

An unfortunate affair

How to dress the part:

Your capsule wardrobe

On the other hand…

CHAPTER TEN: World of women

Domestic goddesses

The great unwashed

Household joys?

What men want

Cheap but not cheerful

Servant starvation…

…and mistress murder

CHAPTER ELEVEN: End of an era

The peculiar case of the Chocolate Cream Poisoner

Rights and rewards

How would you serve?

More choice, greater freedom

The end of housework?

The professionals

Timeline of Servant History

Glossary

End matter

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