Snobs is a meticulously detailed satire of upper class living. The English aristocrats that inhabit its pages are carefully, and sympathetically, drawn. I knew little about Julian Fellowes before picking up this book but after a little research that sympathy is easy to understand for Fellowes, like his narrator, is an upper class actor with a penchant for nice things, and a foot inside the drawing room door.
The plot is very simple and based around Edith, a social climber determined to 'make a good marriage'. The rest of the story charts her predictable boredom once thrown into her new life as a countess and what she chooses to do about it.
The novel is slightly reminiscent of P G Wodehouse in as far as both provide a historical account of a certain type of society. As with the former, Fellowes' plot is secondary to the characters within it. With Wodehouse the fact that the plot is predictable is part of the fun. It breeds a comforting familiarity and requires little concentration on clues and events, leaving the reader to bask instead in the undeniably glory of the prose. Wodehouse crafts language like no-one else, least of all Julian Fellowes. Whilst Fellowes' characters are well observed, he does not possess the razor sharp wit of his predecessor.
Snobs offers an entertaining peek into another world - that mostly appears grotesque - but not much more.
More, more, more:
Reviews in the media from The Independent, The Guardian and The Telegraph
From other blogs here and here.
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