Not in Front of the Serv

Wonderful book. So much detail and such an easy to read and follow book. An excellent little treasure.

This little book, republished in paper by the National Trust Classics, results from Dawes realizing that the personal tales of "in service" life was potentially being lost as the last generation died off, and he requested tales and accounts to be sent to him. He expected only a trickle, but was flooded with accounts, letters, diaries and records. The result is a surprisingly readable compendium of the horrors, trials, tribulations, minor joys and comforts, amusements, satisfactions and successes of the lives of servants. For some reason, I find this book really fascinating, particularly to read before bed after a long working day of my own. I suspect if there is such a thing as reincarnation, there's a tweeny, knees black and hands raw from scrubbing floors somewhere back in my past. I love this book because it does what few history books accomplish, it takes you back so completely into the past lives of the subjects, you feel like you are living it with them. For that, I highly recommend it. For all the faceless silent servants of the past, he's given them both a visage and a voice.

Even after watching _Upstairs Downstairs_ on TV, and then seeing the more recent (and more realistic) _Gosford Park,_ there still is a tendency to view the 19th century English dependence on domestic servants as "quaint." Dawes, an experienced television journalist, is himself the grandson of a career domestic, and as he makes clear, the life of most of those in service was far more than simply hard work. Servants -- especially those at the bottom of the pecking order, like scullery maids and "maids of all work" -- were grossly underpaid, often worked eighteen hours a day, could be fired at a moment's notice, and were generally treated by their employers as not quite human. A very large percentage of domestics were girls under twelve years of age. And yet the middle and upper classes constantly harped on the "servant problem" and their inability to get "good" servants. Their blindness to social inequity was not unlike the insistence of many slaveholders that their chattels were loyal out of love of the family they served! (It's amazing to me that there was never a bloody class revolution in Britain. . . .) Dawes does an excellent job detailing the service system with its layers of controls, how servants survived, the hierarchy imposed even below stairs (everyone has to feel superior to someone), hiring and firing practices, how those in service were kept in line by religious propaganda, and what was likely to happen to young women who resisted the advances of male members of the household. Dawes depends heavily on reminiscences of and correspondence from those who were servants in their youth, or whose parents were, because thirty years ago there still of lot of such people alive in Britain; this book couldn't be written today. There are quite a few excellent period illustrations, too.

"Not in front of the Servants" is an excellent resource for those who are looking for a well-rounded picture of life as a domestic servant in England in the late 19th and early 20th century. I'm a fan of the television series: Upstairs, Downstairs, I had become intrigued by the dull and sometimes (quite tragic), lives of children, women and men, put into domestic service. The detachment of their aristocratic employers from reality is quite clear as you learn how children are 'bought' from orphanages and poor houses and employed to scrub and work from as early as 5 AM to 11 PM. It was sad to see how the rich employers felt their servants should be 'grateful' for the privilege of working with terrible pay, living in drafty rooms and eating poor quality food. This book describes the hiring process, the workload, the tasks, and the perceptions of Domestic Servants, as well as how Servants themselves perceived themselves.I found it interesting that women were much worse off in domestic service, than men, because their pay was much less and they were required to pay for their own uniforms, whereas, men's pay in most cases was much higher, and their uniforms were provided.Definitely a must for Anthropology students and those interested in exploring the lives of people in domestic service.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest whatsoever in both upper and servant class life at the turn of the century. It is an extremely insightful book, written during the 1970's, when many of the servants were still alive. In the book, the author includes many excerpts from interviews and letters received from former servants. It covers virtually every base in-depth. The chapters are well divided. There is a chapter on servants' uniforms, pay, recruitment, heirarchy,living conditions, duties, and sexual relationships. It covers the lives of servants who lived and worked from about 1870 to 1930. It is extremely detailed, filled with facts, yet it is written in a charming manner that makes it a delight to read. I had a difficult time putting it down! Not in Front of the Servants is a must read for anyone with any interest whatsoever in servants' life.