Snobs: a novel (Hardcover)

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Lucy Beresford, LITERARY REVIEW
'deliciously waspish satire.... SNOBS is terrific entertainment, deepened by the sad ache of truth

Review
'Julian Fellowes is just marvellous at celebrating the subtle slights that lie beneath aristocratic conversation. Reading his novel SNOBS is a guilty pleasure, owing not just to its bouncy plot, but also to the suspicion that Mr Fellowes knows the territory well.' (John Walsh HARPERS AND QUEEN )

'A delicious comedy of manners on the nuances of English social life, which raises laughter and an occasional wince of recognition.' (Clare Colvin DAILY MAIL )

'This provocative, titillating and seductive novel.......Julian Fellowes tells this anachronistic morality tale with such wit, verve, elegance and shadenfreude that it never loses momentum.' (Andrew Barrow THE SPECTATOR )

'sparklingly rompish......... the world that Fellowes describes is an unchanging one: that of the landed aristocracy, whose wish since the beginning of time (or at least, since the beginning of titles), is to mix only with their own kind.... Fellowes is a delectable guide to its absurdities. (Penny Perrick SUNDAY TIMES )

'a good, fresh, read.... Fellowes has an excellent eye for detail..... Fellowes uses a light dusting of satire to help us enjoy our own snobbery without choking on chippiness. (Mary Wakefield DAILY TELEGRAPH )

'deliciously waspish satire.... SNOBS is terrific entertainment, deepened by the sad ache of truth' (Lucy Beresford LITERARY REVIEW )

'The Gosford Park writer's wry look at the English class system is an entertaining dabble in Debrett's. (Andrea Henry THE MIRROR )

'a delicious contemporary comedy of manners - but it's the spiky Emma Woodhouse-style asides which make SNOBS so irresistible.' (John Koski YOU MAGAZINE )

'Fellowes's attractive, faintly cynical voice has overtones of Trollope, Waugh and Mitford.... this deft entertaining novel....' (Philip Hoare INDEPENDENT )

'A deliciously entertaining novel.' (STAR MAGAZINE )

'the author of Gosford Park has written a novel so horribly compelling that anyone attempting to read if in the lav would cause a riot on the landing.' (Jane Shilling THE TIMES )

'An affectionate expose from the author of GOSFORD PARK, it reveals the sensibilities of today's dwindling upper classes, and the infiltration of their ranks by the new elite - celebrity hangers-on.' (REAL )

'It is one of those books one imagines being sent up to Balmoral, come September, where it will be proclaimed divinely funny and quite amazingly true to life.' (Catherine Bennett THE GUARDIAN )

'Fellowes has a nice epigrammatic style. He conjures characters deftly, and although the story is slight, it's sufficient to make the reader want to turn the page.' (Chris Paling New Humanist )

The style is langorous, elegant and measured ... this absorbing book ... the finely crafted characters ... a riveting social history ... a gripping novel by someone with effortless grasp of character and dialogue that invites comparison with Evelyn Waugh ... his fine honed abilities as a storyteller.' (Tim Lott THE EVENING STANDARD )

'He is first of all, a true stylist. The prose is good, lucid and polished without painful overwriting.' (Edward Pearce TRIBUNE )

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First Sentence
I do not know exactly how Edith Lavery came first to be taken up by Isabel Easton. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
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24 Reviews 5 star:  (5) 4 star:  (10) 3 star:  (3) 2 star:  (5) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 3.5 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Mockery from Within, 14 May 2006 By  A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    This review is from: Snobs: A Novel (Paperback) This not-quite-debut novel (Fellowes wrote several romance novels in the mid-'70s under the name Rebecca Greville, including "Poison Presented" and "Court in the Terror") ought to appeal to fans of his 2001 Oscar-winning script for the film Gosford Park. A straightforward satirical comedy of manners set among the upper classes of mid-'90s England and those who aspire to join them, the book is a frothy comic brew which skewers both parties with the kind of pitch-perfect subtle writing that it seems only the British can pull off. The story is quite simple, a pretty woman from an upper middle-class family whose mother has pretentions decides to ensnare a hugely wealthy and dull aristocratic man in order to "marry up" into the upper classes which still hold such a mystique and importance in British society. The man's mother, a formidable Marchioness aims to prevent this from occurring but fails. The young woman discovers that life at the top isn't as exciting as she anticipated and runs off with an handsome actor to great scandal. Will anyone find happiness at the end? This is all more or less narrated by a semi-aristocratic actor (clearly very much like the author) who is able to move between all worlds due to his upbringing and career. He starts the book as a friend of the young woman and a very passing acquaintance of the young man, and ends up becoming a bridge between worlds and at the latter stages, a kind of discreet go-between. It is his penetrating sardonic insights and the witty formulations thereof which lend what substance there is to this otherwise straightforward love story. Much of the novel involves the narrator spelling out the unspoken rules of the game for the reader in deliciously mocking detail. The main flaw in most satire is that it is too broad or unsubtle, but here the narrator's mockery of the artificially preserved world of the aristocracy is all the more effective from its insider position. To be sure, the characters are mostly "types" without a whole lot of substance or depth to them (the boorish rich pig, the nasty arriviste, the brisk no-nonsense wife, the ice queen, the social climber, etc.), but that's kind of the point as well. A great deal of the satire is that these upper crust people have no personality, that they are all just filling the roles they've seen before them and imagine will extend after them forever. Ultimately, the book is somewhat bittersweet in that the writing is quite amusing, but one can't help but feel slightly sorry for how unhappy so many of the characters are (even if they aren't particularly deeply drawn). On the other hand, it's not too hard to feel like it's a case of them getting their just desserts... Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   17 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars A nearly perfect treat of a book, 13 Nov 2004 By A Customer A thoroughly enjoyable book and one, I was surprised to find, that stayed with me longer than usual after I'd finished it - probably because beneath the humour and even despite the happy ending, it is quite sad. It seems awful that Charles, the heroine's decent husband, should suffer so merely because he is titled and rich but not interesting or clever enough, and I couldn't help feeling that the strength, intelligence and self-discipline of the Lady Uckfields of this world could sort out the entire planet, if only the business of snobbery didn't demand so much of their time and all of their resources. The satire is beautifully done - it has bite, true, but Fellowes does not fall into the tedious and common trap of either despising or glorifying the people about whom he writes. The detail is glorious and funny. Strongly recommended - and I do hope he keeps on writing! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   17 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Hello! I'm OK!, 5 Aug 2004 By  DeeJay (CHELTENHAM, Glos United Kingdom) - See all my reviews    Although they might intermingle within the pages of Hello! the aristocrat and the A'list celebrity live in different worlds. However, Julian Fellowes has a foot in both worlds and, like many before him, his first novel is set within an environment he is familiar with. The plot is a sort of 'menages trois' (Julian's characters have a fondness for lapsing into French) but like Gosford Park the plot isn't that riveting, where Julian excels is in social anthropology. If you believed, like John Major, that we were on the brink of a classless society then let Julian reveal the truth to you as he explains little oddities such as the upper classes usage of their nursery nicknames throughout their life. Peppered with insights and seasoned with scandal but not over done, a rare treat for escapist reading. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 24 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars What Really Matters This was an enjoyable easy read, although I agree with the reviewers who point out that the first person narrative jars with a great deal of what could only be third person... Read more Published 4 months ago by Guy reid-brown 4.0 out of 5 stars Thouroughly enjoyable A very good satire with the ring of truth I suppose. I couldn't tell, I am not one of the elects.But I took great pleasure in reading this story even though I thought I was... Read more Published 5 months ago by H. Lacroix 2.0 out of 5 stars Sub-Waugh and not very good This is a curate's egg of a novel but mostly bad, alas. A situation comedy about some forgettable characters it's at its best when we hear a kind of "voice-over" from the narrator... Read more Published 8 months ago by P. Smith 2.0 out of 5 stars Don't give up the day job, Mr Fellowes I read "Snobs" with increasing disappointment. Julian Fellowes is a fine actor and has a talent for writing but, on the evidence of "Snobs", not in the direction of novels... Read more Published 17 months ago by Secret Spi 2.0 out of 5 stars The Late Night Readers bookclub thought.... Based on an upper-middle class young woman's ambition to marry into Aristocracy, this book describes the fall from her own expectations that she suffers when she finds that life... Read more Published on 24 April 2007 by Late Night Readers 4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable If you enjoy pressing your nose up to the glass to see how the other half lives then you will enjoy this novel. The book is very well written and highly readable. Read more Published on 12 Jan 2007 by sainte-carmen 5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best A wonderful read - subtle, humorous and sad by turns. I couldn't put it down until I'd found out what happened to Edith, the heroine. Read more Published on 19 May 2006 by Book Lover 4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and neatly plotted This book is set in an upper class milieu with which I am not familiar - and to be fair, wouldn't want to be. The author is not exactly a revolutionary! Read more Published on 17 May 2006 by Reptile 5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful, Absorbing Novel--I give it 6 stars! What a shame that this novel is titled "Snobs"! "Snobs" is such a harsh, judgmental term, which does not fit this very human, charming, absorbing, insightful, and non-judgmental... Read more Published on 25 Feb 2006 by Stephen Schwartz 3.0 out of 5 stars Took a while to get going... ...but once Julian Fellows `SNOBS' took off it was a very enjoyable and engaging novel, unfortunately it took about one hundred and fifty pages too long for me to actually... Read more Published on 9 Feb 2006 by DevJohn01 Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 24 customer reviews...

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