Books about the high-class (aristocracy)

[lokariototal]

I want a book that it is a critique on the high-class society. A book that shows how that world works...a book that is about how those people think

[JBI]

Forsyte Saga by Galsworthy.

[Night_Lamp]

Long, but one of the best commentaries on the decadent of the 19th C is
Trollope's The Way We Live Now.

[Veva]

Well, I guess that Balzac would suit you. I remember reading Pere Goriot few years ago and it was quite good. ;)

[mal4mac]

Brideshead revisited - Waugh - Sebastian is oh so typical -- Oxford, teddy bear, alcohol and all...

Point Counter Point - Huxley. The daft scientist and fascist are interesting representations...

Many Shakepseare plays! Try Henry IV parts 1 & 2, it's very good on the interaction between classes (Hal. v. Falstaff)

I watched the "Cranford Christmas special" on BBC1 yesterday, and the eccentric ladyship and her lazy, evil son were amusing representations of the dark,impotent side of the English aristocracy. The novel is supposed to be good, but I haven't read that yet...

How high do you want to go? In the lower reaches of the aristocracy, Squire Allworthy in Fielding's Tom Jones is a more positive representation of the aristocracy, as is the crasser, fun loving squire next door -- both have their highly amusing blind spots though...

Tolstoy is good -- he was an aristocrat! Besides the obvious, try "The Cossacks" and "Hadji Murad" (the latter has an excellent portrayal of the evil Tsar.)

Lord Byron?

Squire Trelawney in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Hmmm... another nice squire -- who were these novels aimed at :) William Makepeace Thackeray's squire in Vanity Fair may be a good antidote to the "nice squires" -- lecherous, ill-educated, badly mannered...

Nicholas Nickleby overhears some evil minor aristocrats planning to seduce his sister ... it's great fun seeing how he gives them what for...

It's interesting how the term squire has evolved - Wikipedia is quite good on this...

[prendrelemick]

Any Jane Austin - you might as well enjoy yourself as you study.

[dfloyd]

there is no aristocracy per se, but for vivid descriptions of the moneyed class you can't beat Scott Fitzgerald's novels: The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Tender Is the Night. Dreiser's An American Tragedy also tells of the moneyed class.

[Whifflingpin]

"The Intrusions of Peggy" Anthony Hope
"Ravenshoe" Henry Kingsley
"Sybil" Disraeli

For the squirarchy, rather than the aristocracy,
The "De Coverley Papers" Addison or Steele
"Tom Brown's Schooldays" Hughes

[WICKES]

Evelyn Waugh is a good place to start. He was from the English-British upper middle class himself. When he went to Oxford he mixed with aristocrats and was both repelled and fascinated. He was shocked by the decadence and immorality (particularly the acceptance of sexual affairs outside marriage) but attracted by the glamour, the charm etc

Aldous Huxley has a similarly amibivalent attitude. He satirises and ridicules the British upper class (of which he was a part) yet still seems to regard them as the height of civilisation.

P G Wodehouse ridicules the British upper class as well. Yet again there is affection there: a love of the eccentric and romantic.

Oscar Wilde is another interesting case. He is often seen as the witty Irish outsider, poking fun at the English. Yet he also said "the first thing I lost at Oxford was my Irish accent", lived the majority of his life in London and wrote mostly about the English upper class. Even the homosexual affair for which he is so famous was with a young English aristocrat.

[kelby_lake]

Brideshead Revisited, The Great Gatsby, Pride and prejudice (in a way)

[kasie]

there is no aristocracy per se, but for vivid descriptions of the moneyed class you can't beat Scott Fitzgerald's novels: The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and the Damned, and Tender Is the Night. Dreiser's An American Tragedy also tells of the moneyed class.

Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence also is set among American moneyed aristiocrats.

Back in GB, Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate are wicked portrayals of the upper classes to which Mitford belonged.

[DisPater]

William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair or The Virginians

[Boisjolie]

The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde.

Definitely one of the best novels I've ever read, and in a way it is a deep criticism on the realities of the Victorian-British aristocracy.

[free]

Have I noticed it correctly: There are not so many, if at all, literature authors from the high class or atistocracy?

[Helga]

maybe it's not what you are looking for but Dangerous Liaisons is about how bored the French upper class can be and how they entertain themselves, and it is a very good book.