Servants who matter

harrygbutler just reviewed a book that caught my interest - Ruggles of Red Gap - which features a valet who is traded in a card game to a nouveau riche American couple and moves with them to the wild west.

That reminded me of several other tattered books where the servant (or supposed servant) is a featured character.

The first that jumped up is Castle Craneycrow, because the hero and his valet meet up under extraordinary circumstances, entertainingly described in the first chapter. The rest of the book devolves into a melodrama, but that first section is worth the read.

The team of C. N. and A. M. Williamson have several servants of note.

The Lion's Mouse is also a bad melodrama, but the title refers to a loyal servant.

One of their travel novels stars a heroine who becomes a ladies maid in order to escape an unwanted suitor in The Motor Maid. I believe the theme is repeated in another of their titles, where a rich young man hires out as a chauffeur.

I know there are others; I'll just have to think on't.

Hannah Parmalee invites herself into the Ward household. Mrs. Ward is very pregnant and not a good housekeeper, nor efficient with the budget. Hannah takes hold as a servant of all work and certainly earns her keep, pulling the Ward family's circumstances ever upward in White Banners by Lloyd C. Douglas.

I'm pretty sure several of Kathleen Norris' books feature young women who labor as servants. Will try to remember to look.

Also, Temple Bailey's heroines work as hard as servants do. Mistress Anne is a schoolteacher, but she also serves in her parents' inn, particularly during the fishing season.

In the second half of The Miser of Mayfair the story is told from the point of view of the servants, in particular the butler. There is a sequel, set in the same house, presumably also told by the servants.

Of course there is Carry On, Jeeves, and all the other Wooster and Jeeves tales by P. G. Wodehouse.

Dorothy L. Sayers used Bunter and Lord Peter to show that special relationship between the nobility officers and their batmen in WWI. I think the best story for those two is Whose Body?.

>3 2wonderY: You should check your touchstones.

>4 2wonderY: there's a series of six books, mainly showcasing the servants. I love rereading it.

I just finished Marcia Schuyler by Grace Livingston Hill. I really liked the character of Miranda who is the neighbors' poor relation. Despite being homely and unsophisticated, Miranda is good-natured and loaded with common sense. She delights in the adventure of being naive newcomer Marcia's guardian angel. It is a break from the drudgery of her life and a chance to get back at her mean relations. There are two more books in the Miranda Trilogy.

Miranda is absolutely my favourite book by Grace Livingston Hill! She is such a strong, original, and delightful character. I haven't read either of the other books, though.

I recently finished Pamela or Virtue Rewarded from 1740. It may be the first English novel where the lead character is a woman who works for a living. She is a ladies’ maid. She is resourceful and you appreciate the tightrope she walks in trying to make a good impression but not be seen as putting on airs. I liked the first half but hated the second. I didn’t like the author’s choice for the ending but also nothing much happens in the second half. It is weirdly relevant to 2017 because it is about sexual harassment

Don't know if they qualify for TBSL but how about Passepartout in Around the World in Eighty Days and J M Barrie's Admirable Crighton?

I suppose Sherlock's Mrs. Hudson would be a bit offended to be classed as a servant, but she did answer the front door bell and cook breakfast.

>11 abbottthomas: Of course those are TBSLs!

I went through a Barrie phase decades ago, but it seems I missed a lot of goodies. Must rectify. For penance today, I'll do some author page clean up.

Rumer Godden's China Court might just qualify as a TBSL book, and it contains servant characters who are important.

Coincidentally yesterday I was at an exhibition about the history of opera and one of the featured works was Le nozze di Figaro. It was pointed out that this was one of the first occurrences of servants and "ordinary folk" (rather than gods or royalty) being lead characters in a drama. (Obviously the Beaumarchais plays came before the opera).

Malvolio in Twelfth Night might qualify?

Mrs Danvers in Rebecca (assuming that this still fits in the TBSL category).

Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp is a fun screwball comedy, that was later made into a substandard film, about a girl who doesn't want to be a servant and refuses to be servile. Sharp wrote two more books about servants but they're technically too recent for TBSL: The Sun in Scorpio and The Faithful Servants.

Aha! I have Cluny Brown, but never read it yet. I’ve liked some of her other books. And I know just where there are at the moment.

>16 spiralsheep:, >17 2wonderY: I too own an unread copy of Cluny Brown. I must dig it out! I've really enjoyed the Margery Sharp novels I've read so far.

>18 Sakerfalcon: Enjoy!

I only have two unread Sharps remaining: Rhododendron Pie, which was too rare for me to obtain until it was reprinted this year, and Four Gardens. Next year I'll have to begin re-reading them all again. :-)

I looked on my Margery Sharp shelf; and perhaps I’m wrong about owning Cluny Brown.
☹️

I acknowledge that Gone With the Wind has fallen out of favor, but throughout the umpteen times I read it in my teen years, I was always fond of Mammy, with twice the common sense of any of her young mistresses.

>21 gmathis: Boy, that’s the truth!

I'm literally looking at a copy of this book...

A Lady of No Leisure: the Story of Marion, a Maid, by Eric Simons, 1931.

I've only found one review online, from The Australian Woman's Mirror, and it doesn't sound promising (apologies for the c&p formatting):

"A Lady of No Leisure, by Eric Simons
(Hodder and Stoughton). The glimpse
that is given of the young lady’s extreme
youth is, contrary to many such glimpses,
an integral part of the story. It is necessary,
in order to understand Marion Drake,
to know that a sister, bitterly disappointed
in an affair of love, has drummed into
Marion warnings against men in general.
Orphaned while still a girl, Marion goes out
to service and in a great home realises the
educational gap between her and those with
whom she comes into contact. Sharing this
realisation with the young man secretary
in the house, she is put on the road to
culture by the gift of a dictionary, joins
a night-school and so develops herself that
she is engaged as a companion to a lady.
Thus she travels, progressively improving
herself, and on her return to England is
proposed to by an elderly lord. She accepts
him, telling him, however, that she does not
love. Then she again meets her early
helper, the secretary, now a famous essayist.
He falls in love with her without recognising
her, and the lord, seeing the state of
affairs, renounces his claims. It is now that
the sister’s early warnings on love have
influence. Marion, though she is her
self in love, distrusts the emotion and will
_not_ have the secretary. A disappointing
ending, thus baldly stated, but nothing of
the kind as the author presents Marion’s
character. The sincere and faithful novel
is dedicated to H. G. Wells, and there are
interesting contacts with Bernard Shaw and
other literary personalities to captivate the
bookish-minded."

A Lady of No Leisure Anyone who wants a challenging combining job can look at the various 'Eric Simons' authors.

Miss Mole

Description
Product Description

"'Who would suspect her sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who would imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate garments?'

Miss Hannah Mole has for twenty years earned her living precariously as a governess or companion to a succession of difficult old women.Now, aged forty, a thin and shabby figure, she returns to Radstowe, the lovely city of her youth. Here she is, if not exactly welcomed, at least employed as housekeeper by the pompous Reverend Robert Corder, whose daughters are sorely in need of guidance. But even the dreariest situation can be transformed into an adventure by the indomitable Miss Mole. Blessed with imagination, wit and intelligence, she wins the affection of Ethel and her nervous sister Ruth. But her past holds a secret that, if brought to life, would jeopardise everything."

Christmas gift. Loved it. Will be worth re-reading.

That sounds absolutely delicious!

>25 MDGentleReader: So glad to see you back here! Yes, as GG says, that sounds up my alley as well.

>25 MDGentleReader: ouch, book bullet.

Good to see you!

>25 MDGentleReader: A great book! Glad you enjoyed it!

It’s not a big feature in this book, but I had to capture a line.

Polly Oliver’s Problem does have instances throughout of characters serving in various ways. Polly herself has always helped her mother serve their boarders in Santa Barbara, CA. They move to San Francisco for Mrs. Oliver’s health. Their finances are such that Yung Lee is hired only intermittently to help. He’s usually only mentioned in passing. But a dinner feast when good fortune arrives:
“The banquet was such a festive occasion that Yung Lee’s Chinese reserve was sorely tried, and he giggled more than once, while waiting on the table.”

My Friend the Chauffeur does have Barrymore hire himself out to drive some Americans in France and Italy. They don’t know he is titled, (though poor.) His friend, Baronet Moray, has put him up to it in a scheme to save the beloved motorcar from having to be sold.
But Ralph Moray mentions Félicité to one of the Americans. When asked, he declares:
“ Félicité is my cook - my housekeeper - my guide, philosopher and friend; my all.”
She responds (she is quite young and naturally rude:
“That dear, fat duck who brought us tea the day we were at your house?”
The exchange goes on:
“I have two ducks. But Félicité was the one who brought you the tea. The other eats mice and fights the cat. Félicité doesn’t eat mice, and fights me.”
“I loved her.”
“So do I. And I could love you for loving her.”

>31 2wonderY: I like that exchange!