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Servants
- A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
- Narrated by: Helen Stern
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
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Publisher's summary
The vividly told lives of British servants and the upper crust they served.
From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers - even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust - as popular culture would have us believe - they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order. Spanning over 100 years, Lucy Lethbridge - in this "best type of history" (Literary Review) - brings to life through letters and diaries the voices of countless men and women who have been largely ignored by the historical record. She also interviews former and current servants for their recollections of this waning profession.
At the fore are the experiences of young girls who slept in damp corners of basements, kitchen maids who were required to stir eggs until the yolks were perfectly centered, and cleaners who had to scrub floors on their hands and knees despite the wide availability of vacuum cleaners. We also meet a lord who solved his inability to open a window by throwing a brick through it and Winston Churchill’s butler who did not think Churchill would know how to dress on his own.
A compassionate and discerning exploration of the complex relationship between the server, the served, and the world they lived in, Servants opens a window onto British society from the Edwardian period to the present.
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Away from the frontlines of World War II, in towns and villages across Great Britain, ordinary women were playing a vital role in their country's war effort. As members of the Women's Institute, an organization with a presence in a third of Britain's villages, they ran canteens and knitted garments for troops, collected tons of rosehips and other herbs to replace medicines that couldn't be imported, and advised the government on issues ranging from evacuee housing to children's health to postwar reconstruction. But they are best known for making jam.
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Tread Carefully & Be Amazed
- By Sara on 12-27-15
By: Julie Summers
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A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain
- By: Michael Paterson
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The Victorian era has dominated the popular imagination like no other period, but these myths and stories also give a very distorted view of the 19th century. The early Victorians were much stranger than we usually imagine, and their world would have felt very different from our own. It was only during the long reign of the Queen that a modern society emerged in unexpected ways.
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Brief, But Insightful
- By Troy on 07-17-13
By: Michael Paterson
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Wait for Me!
- Memoirs
- By: Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood in the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire.
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The last of the Mitford Sisters
- By Irene on 01-11-11
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Victorian London
- The Life of a City, 1840-1870
- By: Liza Picard
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
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Like her previous books, this book will be the result of the author's passionate interest in the realities of everyday life, and the conditions in which most people lived, so often left out of history books. This period of mid-Victorian London encompasses a huge range of subjects.
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Unforgettable journey into the past
- By Adeliese Baumann on 05-27-18
By: Liza Picard
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At Home
- A Short History of Private Life
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.”
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Bryson does it again
- By Robert on 10-15-10
By: Bill Bryson
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What She Ate
- Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories
- By: Laura Shapiro
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Laura Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
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A beloved culinary historian's short takes on six famous women through the lens of food and cooking - what they ate and how their attitudes toward food offer surprising new insights into their lives. It's a lively and unpredictable array of women; what they have in common with one another (and us) is a powerful relationship with food.
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Interesting, but don't think the book's premise...
- By Jay Quintana on 09-15-17
By: Laura Shapiro
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The Husband Hunters
- American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
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Towards the end of the 19th century and for the first few years of the 20th, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege, and breeding in which the titled, land-owning governing class had barricaded itself for so long was breached. The incomers were a group of young women who, 50 years earlier, would have been looked on as the alien denizens of another world - the New World, to be precise. From 1874 - the year that Jennie Jerome, the first known "Dollar Princess", married Randolph Churchill - to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage....
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Bondfide Valuable History Lesson
- By A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. on 09-21-18
By: Anne de Courcy
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Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey
- The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
- By: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration and setting for Julian Fellowes's Emmy Award-winning PBS series, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants: Lady Almina, the fifth Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.
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the lowdown on Downton times
- By connie on 03-17-12
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Ritz and Escoffier
- The Hotelier, The Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class
- By: Luke Barr
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In early August 1889, César Ritz, a Swiss hotelier highly regarded for his exquisite taste, found himself at the Savoy Hotel in London. He had come at the request of Richard D'Oyly Carte, the financier of Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operas, who had modernized theater and was now looking to create the world's best hotel. D'Oyly Carte soon seduced Ritz to move to London with his team, which included Auguste Escoffier, the chef de cuisine known for his elevated, original dishes.
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Like Cesar Ritz, a real dandy
- By BenYL on 04-24-18
By: Luke Barr
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Black Diamonds
- The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England
- By: Catherine Bailey
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in 20th-century England, valued at more than three billion dollars in today's money - a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it?
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Could use a good editor...
- By Phyllis on 04-30-18
By: Catherine Bailey
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Daddy-Long-Legs
- By: Jean Webster
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Jerusha Abbott is the oldest orphan in the John Grier Home. Every day she helps scrub and dress the younger children - all 97 of them. Soon she will graduate from high school and be on her own. Where will she go, and how will she support herself? When an anonymous wealthy donor decides to send her to college, Jerusha can hardly believe her good fortune. All she must do in return is send him a letter once a month. With all the excitement of college life - classes, parties, new friends, and a special gentleman - Jerusha can hardly stop writing!
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Delightful
- By Greg and Sara Masarik on 04-06-15
By: Jean Webster
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Labyrinths
- Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis
- By: Catrine Clay
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
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Clever and ambitious, Emma Jung yearned to study the natural sciences at the University of Zurich. But the strict rules of proper Swiss society at the beginning of the 20th century dictated that a woman of Emma's stature - one of the richest heiresses in Switzerland - travel to Paris to "finish" her education, to prepare for marriage to a suitable man. Engaged to the son of one of her father's wealthy business colleagues, Emma's conventional and predictable life was upended when she met Carl Jung.
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Carl plays center stage
- By Sparrowhawk on 12-23-16
By: Catrine Clay
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What listeners say about Servants
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Angelina Sorrell
- 03-27-18
kept my ear
kept my interest and it was good to see and way servants felt about there work both good and bad
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- Shan
- 12-09-14
Well-researched book spoiled by narrator
Any additional comments?
I enjoyed the content of this book very much - it's a well-researched collection of slice-of-life accounts from both sides of the British social gap in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I appreciated that we heard from both the servants and their (usually oblivious) masters, and that the author followed the changing societal attitudes towards service as time went on and WWI began. However, I probably would have enjoyed it more as a physical book than as an audiobook. The narrator has a distracting habit of pausing every few words whether or not it made sense as a stopping point in the sentence, which breaks up the flow of the writing and makes it hard to follow.
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8 people found this helpful
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- D. L. H.
- 03-08-19
Excellent Historical Information
I really enjoyed the historical experience that this book gave. I imagine going from the Edwardian period to today! Excellent listen.
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Great book. Fascinating history.
If you are interested in social studies you will enjoy this book. Well researched and written. Beautiful narration. Fascinating stories of a beautiful culture of duty-motivated people. Not a book you will forget. Highly recommended.
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- Allyssia
- 06-14-18
A Masterpiece
This is the most comprehensive book on domestic workers and their history. Lucy Lethbridge does a marvelous job at delivering intriguing captivating content and still keeping an impartial tone.
This book allows us to understand the impact of servants on society development and how their decisions dramatically altered the course of history, shaping the world into what we know nowadays.
More than just the history of maids or cooks, this is the history of families, economy, women's rights, habits, education and specially the history of modern world values.I could have never imagined house workers to have influenced society that much, which just makes it more impressive.
Aside from the brilliant job presenting history with so many vivid details, the author also filled the book with dozens of fascinating stories, such as the maid who had her finger stabbed for touching the food. It's a very interesting book from beginning to end and it will surely keep you entertained.
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1 person found this helpful
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- thekgbstudio
- 09-22-18
Loved the story very uneven performance
The voice changed I could tell things were added, it was almost unbearable in some spots. I soldiered on nexuses I liked the information. But will avoid books by same performer
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- redsrule1
- 01-11-15
Interesting but gaps in info, narration difficult
Interesting look into Edwardian Britain's service customs, but for a non-Briton there are quite a few terms the author uses but does not define, apparently assuming the reader already knows. As for the narration, Ms. Stern reads quotations mimicking the accents she expects that the writer would have spoken which takes me right out of the narrative as if I've hit a speedbump. Therefore we have Germans speaking in a cartoonish stereotypical manner, various forms of Cockney and other accents from the British Isles, and apparently Ms. Stern believes that all Americans sound as if they are from the Jersey Shore. This, combined with her halting manner of delivering un-accented narration, make it, while not an unendurable listen, harder to follow and less enjoyable than it could have been. I wouldn't say to avoid this book, but you might enjoy the printed version more.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Mary Elizabeth Reynolds
- 03-16-14
A collection of stories about servants
I didn't come away with much more from this than an affirmation that classed societies don't work very well for those on the bottom. I got the feeling that the author admired these people, saw them as a type of hero or heroine, maybe they were--they certainly didn't have a lot of choices to act on their own accords.
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3 people found this helpful
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- PaganDeva2000
- 12-14-22
REALITY!
There is no way I can romanticize the Victorian society after listening to this! These poor people were taken for granted! They were invisible, sub-human and treated like cattle. No rest for the weary, no warmth from the cold. Just existing and breathing until they met their makers for these clueless, cruel and superficial people!
This is an excellent listen to learn how people were regarded and treated. I thank the author for sharing this reality. I’d love to know how today’s royal servants are faring.
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2 people found this helpful
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- dianna hargreaves
- 01-11-19
wonderful
excellent details to let your mind create the characters. look forward to more from this author and narrator.
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