From The Spectator, 14 November 1914:
THACKERAY dealt a blow at domestic service which it has never quite recovered. He made it ridiculous. It was the one bad turn that he did to English society. The litera- ture of his day reflected his point of view. Servants did not then read novels—they were 31s. 6d. each—neither did they belong to lending libraries. The derisive smiles of their employers were hardly understood by them. By now the
employer has forgotten that he ever laughed, though it is impossible to deny that some very faint aroma of ridicule still clings to his mind in connexion with the thought of domestic service, at any rate for men. Meanwhile education has made rapid progress. A class which never read before is reading now. All the standard novels are cheap, and the serious man reads them in preference to the modern novels which he can buy for the same price.
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