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Originally Posted by Little.Egret
I looked for a 'servant' example and found Magic below Stairs
A fantasy by Caroline Stevermer
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I've read that, but it's a long time ago, so I don't remember a lot, except that I liked it. I think the fantasy element (magical shenanigans) was much more prominent than the servant aspect, but I may remember wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
I'd be more interested in novels about the servants.
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Another one is Rose Lerner's "Listen to the Moon". It's about a starchy valet and a happy-go-lucky maid who find themselves without jobs. The vicar needs a butler, but he'll only employ a married man and his wife. It's very good, recommended! (And here's a blog post she wrote about
working conditions and living conditions of servants in the Regency.)
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Something similar that I far prefer is Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. Of course, it is also sixty years newer.
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I like that one a lot. I haven't read a lot of Ibsen, as I don't read a lot of plays. (After going to school in Norway I have a general idea of the plots of several of his plays, though, and I can quote the beginning of Peer Gynt after helping my brother learn his lines for a school play
)
Returning to Austen, I strongly recommend "Pride and Predators", an article in Michigan Law Review (
link to the PDF here) written by Heidi Bond (who writes romances under the pen name Courtney Milan). It's part of a series where lawyers write about classic books from a legal point of view.
Excerpt (warning:
Major spoilers for Pride and Prejudice!)
Spoiler:
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most beloved romance novels 1) of all time and needs very little introduction. For those who need a refresher on the plot, Pride and Prejudice details the community-wide damage that can be laid at the feet of serial sexual predators. 2) It details the characteristics of predators, discusses the systemic social failures that allow predators to abuse others, and grapples with difficult questions of how communities should deal with those predators.
More specifically: In this 1813 novel, George Wickham—aforementioned serial sexual predator—comes to town and is immediately beloved by all for his wit, his manners, and his charm (p. 64). He latches onto the heroine, Elizabeth Bennet (“Lizzy”), immediately gains her trust, and uses her to determine that the one man in the community who can expose his predatory past—Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy—is disliked for his poor manners (pp. 67–73).
When Darcy proposes to Lizzy, Lizzy accuses him of bad behavior toward Wickham. Darcy answers her accusations by bringing Lizzy into a whisper network with regard to Wickham’s past predatory behavior (pp. 173, 180–83), but this whisper network proves to be insufficiently widespread to prevent further harm, as Wickham rapes 3) Lizzy’s own sister (pp. 39, 272–73). In the end, Wickham eventually suffers a very minor consequence that has no lasting effect on his career and, in fact, guarantees his financial future (pp. 272–73).
...and rereading it now, I had forgotten how brilliant it is. The conclusion -- especially the final sentence in the article, consisting of a single one-syllable word -- is a masterpiece.