Directions to Servants

This edition of a hilarious work by the author of 'Gulliver's Travels', 'Directions to Servants' is one of Jonathan Swift's last completed works. It displays all his caustic skill as a satirist and his unerring eye for the little annoyances of life.

Taking the form of a handbook of manners, and addressed to each servant individually, Directions to Servants is the ultimate upstairs/downstairs battle. With scathing wit, Swift pits master against servant in an endless struggle for order, frugality and the best bits of the roast. His servants are lazy, profligate, and acquisitive: always on the lookout for a shilling to be made on the sale of leftovers, or a half-bottle of wine to share with the cook. Written in Swift's final years of sanity, Directions to Servants is a last hilarious outpouring of cynicism at a lifetime's accumulation of poor service.

Foreword by Colm Toibin
Directions to :
All Servants in General
the Butler
the Cook
the Footman
the Coachman
the Groom
the House Steward and Land Steward
the Porter
the Chambermaid
the Waiting-maid
the Housemaid
the Dairymaid
the Children's Maid
the Nurse
the Laundress
the Housekeeper
the Tutoress or Governess
Notes
Note on the text
Biographical note