Snobs is Julian Fellowes's debut novel first published in the UK in 2004. It centres on modern British aristocracy and the courtship and marriage of Charles, Earl Broughton, and Miss Edith Lavery. It is written from the perspective of an unnamed male character who bears more than a passing resemblance to Fellowes himself.
Edith Lavery is a middleclass single woman who feels she has reached a time in her life when the only chance of riches, fame and success is to marry a rich man. Her parents, especially her mother, have spent most of Edith's life trying to make her respectable to the upper classes and are both extremely glad when she announces her courtship and engagement to the bumbling and kind-hearted Charles Broughton, only son and heir of the Marquess of Uckfield.
The engagement is not looked upon favourably by Charles's mother, the Marchioness of Uckfield ("Googie" to her friends), or by many in Charles's "set". His friends and relatives frequently mock Edith and attempt to "catch her out" as an alien to the aristocracy. Her greatest enemy of all is Eric Chase, husband of Charles's sister Lady Caroline Chase, who comes from a similar background to Edith herself.
After the couple marry, they honeymoon in Majorca, but cracks have already begun to form in the marriage. Charles bores Edith while Edith puzzles Charles. Back at the family seat of Broughton Hall, Edith is tempted by Simon Russell, an actor who is filming scenes for a period drama at Broughton with the story's narrator. She embarks on an affair with Russell which leads her to eventually very nearly divorce Charles.
She returns to the Broughton fold upon news of her being pregnant. She accepts Charles for who he is and they live "happily enough".
The novel received mixed reviews. In The Guardian, Rachel Cooke proclaimed that "Fellowes can certainly write a decent sentence; his prose is as refined as his vowels. But what is the point of his book?" [1] The New York Times called it "a good book but not a great one, though it has many great passages." [2]
Lady Sarah Lennox was the most notorious of the famous Lennox sisters, daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sarah Cadogan.
Frances Evelyn "Daisy" Greville, Countess of Warwick was a British socialite and philanthropist. Although embedded in late-Victorian British high society, she was also a campaigning socialist, supporting many schemes to aid the less well off in education, housing, employment, and pay. She established colleges for the education of women in agriculture and market gardening, first in Reading, then in Studley. She established a needlework school and employment scheme in Essex as well as using her ancestral homes to host events and schemes for the benefit of her tenants and workers. Greville was a long-term confidant or mistress to the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII.
Edith Helen Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, DBE was a noted and influential society hostess in the United Kingdom between World War I and World War II, a friend of the first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald. She was a noted gardener and a writer and editor of the works of others.
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George John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-Fitzmaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne, DL, was a British peer and Conservative politician.
Mount Stewart is a 19th-century house and garden in County Down, Northern Ireland, owned by the National Trust. Situated on the east shore of Strangford Lough, a few miles outside the town of Newtownards and near Greyabbey, it was the Irish seat of the Stewart family, Marquesses of Londonderry. Prominently associated with the 2nd Marguess, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Britain's Foreign Secretary at the Congress of Vienna and with the 7th Marquess, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the former Air Minister who at Mount Stewart attempted private diplomacy with Hitler's Germany, the house and its contents reflect the history of the family's leading role in social and political life in Britain and Ireland.
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Amelia Anne "Emily" Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, from 1794 until 1821 generally known as Lady Castlereagh, was the wife of the Georgian-era Irish statesman Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, who from 1812 to 1822 was British Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. Well-connected by birth to the aristocracy and wife of a prominent politician who was Britain's leading diplomat during the close of the Napoleonic Wars, Lady Castlereagh was an influential member of Regency London's high society.
Sybil Rachel Betty Cecile Cholmondeley, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, styled Countess of Rocksavage from 1913 to 1923, was a British socialite, patron of the arts, and Chief Staff Officer in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the Second World War. She belonged to the prominent Sassoon and Rothschild families.
George Horatio Cholmondeley, 2nd Marquess of Cholmondeley, PC, styled Viscount Malpas until 1792 and Earl of Rocksavage between 1792 and 1827, was a British peer and Lord Great Chamberlain of England between 1830 and 1838. Before being called to the House of Lords, he was a Tory Member of Parliament from 1817 through 1821.
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Frances Anne Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, VA was an English noblewoman, the wife of British peer and statesman John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough. One of her sons, Lord Randolph Churchill, was the father of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. She had a total of 11 children, and her principal home was the monumental Blenheim Palace, which she rejuvenated with her "lavish and exciting entertainments", and transformed into a "social and political focus for the life of the nation". She was invested as a Lady of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert for her efforts at famine relief in Ireland.
Emma Clare Thynn, Marchioness of Bath is a British socialite and fashion model. She is married to Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess of Bath. In 2020, she became the first mixed race marchioness in British history.
Charlotte Sloane Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey, formerly known as Lady Charlotte Wellesley, was the second wife of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey.
Mary Seymour, Marchioness of Hertford, formerly the Honourable Mary Hood, was the wife of Hugh Seymour, 6th Marquess of Hertford.
Emily Nugent, Marchioness of Westmeath, formerly Lady Emily Anne Bennet Elizabeth Cecil, was the first wife of George Nugent, 1st Marquess of Westmeath.
Georgiana Somerset, Marchioness of Worcester, formerly Georgiana Frederica Fitzroy, was the first wife of Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort, but died prior to his inheriting the dukedom.