Conspicuous Consumption

by Thorstein Veblen

With its wry portrayal of a shallow, materialistic 'leisure class' obsessed by clothes, cars, consumer goods and climbing the social ladder, this withering satire on modern capitalism is as pertinent today as when it was written over a century ago.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Economics, Sociology, Politics, Classics, Social Science

116 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1899

About the author

Thorstein (born 'Torsten') Bunde Veblen was a Norwegian-American economist and sociologist. He was famous as a witty critic of capitalism.

Veblen is famous for the idea of "conspicuous consumption". Conspicuous consumption, along with "conspicuous leisure", is performed to demonstrate wealth or mark social status. Veblen explains the concept in his best-known book, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). Within the history of economic thought, Veblen is considered the leader of the institutional economics movement. Veblen's distinction between "institutions" and "technology" is still called the Veblenian dichotomy by contemporary economists.

As a leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, Veblen attacked production for profit. His emphasis on conspicuous consumption greatly influenced the socialist thinkers who sought a non-Marxist critique of capitalism.

Reviews

[Insert name here · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me nearly the entire book to realize that Veblen is HILARIOUS. This is wicked satire that manages to be extremely insightful and profound at the same time. It's a very pointed analysis of the leisure class, but done very much in the manner of typical late 19th century ethnographies of "primitive" peoples. But where most of those ethnographies primarily functioned to construct and reinforce beliefs in the moral and cultural superiority of the ethnographers, Veblen uses their own language to connect the habits and characteristics of those very same elites to the supposed barbarisms they look down their noses at.

I should point out that this is not an easy read, being written in Victorian prose, but, again, the language itself is carefully chosen to resonate with Veblen's contemporary audience of readers familiar with accounts of indigenous peoples around the world. Well worth the effort.

[L. Alex A Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sharply satirical social critique of the wealthy elite, which despite being written about the Victorian era structures, has relevance that I feel extends to contemporary society, where “conspicuous consumption" is still definitely prevalent.

I personally enjoyed how Veblen uses subtle, mocking humor throughout this to examine how social status is asserted through wasteful spending, excessive behaviors, and often absurd leisure activities. Yes, the text can feel dense at times, but beneath the formal prose lies a biting wit, and Veblen uses that to expose the absurdities of a society that values the superficial display of wealth over meaningful, productive contributions. What's most notable to me is that his observations, though made over a century ago, feel strikingly relevant today as consumer culture continues to prize excess. I'd say that though the writing style may be a hurdle at times due to the subtlety of its satire, the critique is worth the effort.

3.5/5

[Ericka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny as hell in a Swiftian spirit. Do people write like this anymore? Does this culture of culture critique persist? I want to know about it. I'm stuck in 17th C stuff too much, so if theres someone who knows of contemporary writing of this kind, tell me.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a wretched little book. I don't know much about the author, I know the book, Theory of the Leisure Class, is a famous sociology text, and that these parts all come from that whole. What I don't know if there is something missing in these parts that in the full text, would say, "I'm joking of course about some of the things." The basic idea of this selection is that there is an awful group of people who exploit others and these people use their leisure and wasteful consumption as a badge of honor. They do things like lounge around and employ themselves by riding race horses, and have servants, and getting into duels and taking copious amounts of expensive drugs, and learning useless topics in schools like the humanities, languages like Greek and Latin. Also what they do is learn how to spell, and they shackle the rest of the population to their knowledge of knowing how to spell and how to construct a sentence that would be much more grammatically correct than any that I have ever probably written. What? These assholes of leisure and exploitation also read books for enjoyment, listen to music, and sometimes they like to enjoy sports. They also like to have pretty things around them, and they are such assholes that they have made the lower classes believe in the importance of spending any of their money or time on non-utilitarian things.
I don't know what his point really is. I get the Marxism in it, but I also realize that he has no idea or has an idea of but chooses to ignore what is generally referred to as Early Marx, which deals with more humanist topics like alienation and freedom. Or I just might be missing the part from the larger book where he says, yeah I'm joking about the whole spelling thing, and yes I get the irony of having written a book, using correct spelling, arduous grammatical structures and semi-obscure words, and that I know I'm really just a tourist in the whole 'working-class' thing, since I'm a sociologist engaged in early 20th century vogue psuedo-science, and I also regretfully feel that the viewpoint of people like me will help dumb down the whole country by the inane belief half-baked sciences over real education, and finally I do realize that much of what I've written will be used by men such as Stalin to exploit people in ways the most ruthless captain of industry would blush at (this apology I know isn't in the real text, so I can make the author into a omniscient time traveler here).
Also I think Penguin should take the word satire off of the back of this book, since there is nothing that I can find satirical in the work, unless of course if the whole thing is, and then I have no idea what this book would be aiming at.

[heptagrammaton]

Simultaneously incisive and fascinatingly flawed. Subtly scathing. Might have actually intrigued me enough to read Theory of the Leisure Class at some point.

[Rita Guimarães · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing this down because i can sense any understanding of this text dissipating as quickly as it stroke.
Veblen's theory is that uselessness is the greatest mark of social status, because only those whose needs are secured can spend their time on the truly futile. The most pointless the better, to the point that even the ugly is preferred to the beautiful. This is how the higher classes maintain their status in culture: by choosing to endorse what no one else would, which allows them to claim it as a most refined taste only those with endless leisure time are able to appreciate. A very contemporary critique of everything "high brow" and classist in our culture.
Some of his examples are brilliant and funny, my favourite being that dog breeds are more valued the uglier and less vigorous the animal (same with cats). Others simply went over my head.
His most controversial take is that the same applies to the study of Humanities (and I guess also of Arts). Veblen argues that they serve no other purpose than to show how much free time "intellectuals" have to devote to such inconsequential explorations; that these subjects aren't even interesting in themselves but gratifying mainly as status symbols. I guess this is understandable criticism at the end of the 19th century, marked by an explosion of sociological, philosophical and political theories that paid only lip service to tackling rising inequalities, and that oscillated like trend cycles. But obviously there are issues here. Anyone can and should engage with these subjects, which offer important tools to assess reality critically. The century that separates us from Veblen saw an enormous democratization of them and proved as much. Still, this invites some reflection about the appeal of the social sciences. They aren't pointless but there's definitely self-indulgence to them and even some status. Perhaps they would be more transformative if there wasn't.
The author's critique is wrapped in the densest sarcasm, but the final paragraph makes it worth it.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written with humour, and continues to be very relevant nowadays, maybe even more so than when it was written because in 2021 ‘Class as Performance’ is out of control with social media, paparazzi and a hundred other sick ways our society revels in the rich/leisure caste. This is some great culture critique. More of this please.

[Kári Þorkelsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ríkt fólk er skrýtið og veit ekkert hvað það á að gera við peningana sína og smíðar siði út frá vanmætti öreyga, hverjum hefði dottið það í hug.

[Bryce Galloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satire played very close to the chest. With fin de siècle wariness, the tract authoritatively charts the evolution of a ‘leisure class’ from earlier barbarism, lauding the European over the savage, manly pursuits over women’s work, gentry over workers, war over passivity, and culture over nature. A dense read, I’m drifting off…

P26 ‘In the last analysis the value of manners lies in the fact that they are the voucher of a life of leisure.’ Are things about to get more engaging?

Not really. Wonderfully astute analysis and skewering of the leisure class but going undercover through dry theoretical text also has the effect of sending me to sleep. I could have done with a bit more rhetorical and polemical bluster. Exactingly argues for the performance of the non-productive, i.e. leisure, by both the master and his retinue of staff, trained in conspicuous redundant rituals of service that show society the size of the master’s power and purse.

This one’s super depressing, P50 ‘ The latter-day leisure-class festivities and entertainments may continue in some slight degree to serve the religious need and in a higher degree the needs of recreation and conviviality, but they also serve and invidious purpose; and they serve it none the less effectively for having a colourful non-invidious ground in these more avowable motives.’

Pages 54/55, goes on to discuss the burgeoning middle class, with the male driven into work out of economic necessity, yet making sure he works hard enough to allow his wife to live a life of leisure through which he can derive vicarious and reflected leisure/status. Sexist? Or is talking of the housewife with domestic help and a nanny for the kids?

Pages 66/67, the author discusses the redundancy of the lawn on which no animal shall graze.

Pages 67-69 Velben points out that there is no ‘honorific’ (his favourite word after ‘pecuniary’) measure applied to useful farm animals, that this status is reserved for cats, dogs and race horses, ‘The cat is less reputable than the other two… At the same time the cat’s temperament does not fit her for the honorific purpose. She lives with man on terms of equality, knows nothing of the relation of status… the dog is man’s servant and that he has the gift of an unquestioning subservience and a slave’s quickness in guessing his master’s mood.’ Heh, I just put that here ‘cause I’m a cat person (all zinesters are cat people, autonomous weirdos).

P87, ‘Sportsmen – hunters and anglers – are more or less in the habit of assigning a love of nature, the need of recreation, and the like, as incentives to their favourite pastime. These motives are no doubt frequently present and make up part of the attractiveness of the sportsman’s life; but these can not be the chief incentives. These ostensible needs could be more readily and fully satisfied without the accompaniment of a systematic effort to take the life of those creatures that make up an essential feature of that ‘nature’ that is beloved by the sportsman. It is, indeed, the most noticeable effect of the sportsman’ activity to keep nature in a state of chronic desolation by killing off all living things whose destruction he can compass.’

[Maud · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was a weird little one.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much is explained in this wonderful, slim volume. Why are Americans so hateful of gun control despite the annual carnage? What is the dynamic engine underpinning our industrial strength consumption? Why did Herod have John the Baptist beheaded? (Hint: it wasn’t just because of the sexy dancer).

There was a point in the reading when I found myself starting to hum the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Here it is:

“Predation cannot become the habitual, conventional resource of any group or any class until industrial methods have been developed to such a degree of efficiency as to leave a margin worth fighting for … the transition from peace to predation therefore depends on the growth of technical knowledge and the use of tools.”

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book as research for a book I'm writing and I'm so glad I did. There was so much to think about and so much of this book is relevant to the modern age and to consumerism and social class. I will definitely need to read it again because about half of it went over my head. Loved reading something more philosophical; it's been awhile.

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish at 70%.
Comments are talking about how this is brilliant satire, I’m going to accept that I just didn’t get it. And it’s such a pain to read. So wordy. So overly complicated. It’s such a small book I thought I would make the effort to finish it but I was feeling miserable every time I opened it.

[Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funnier than it has any right to be. Same as with Paul Fussell’s Class, I want to read a 21st century update

[John Waymont · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted everyone to know that I've dedicated some of my time to become literate, read this book, and pointlessly educate myself of its content, rather than spending time on something baser and more productive.

A thoroughly interesting set of analysis made more interesting living in what's now a majority middle-class(/leisure-class) country in the age of Instagram. I do wonder what Veblen would have thought about the debate on presenting only one's "good side", potentially to billions of people across the planet...

Written at a time where only a very select minority could consume very deeply, I don't think Veblen could have fully anticipated the effect of counter-culture, or niche interests that spring up among self-selecting groups of the middle-classes to form their own cliques and tastes. The consequence is emulative consumption that discounts or even deliberately rejects traditional consumption habits (for instance vegetarianism, or consuming something "vulgar" like the fastest car, loudest guitar amp, or sharpest camera lens...). If Veblen goods of current mainstream tastes are too costly to acquire then in a modern society one can generally acquire a taste for something less costly (even a taste for doing something in the most thrifty manner) and redefine taste among a subculture, possibly taking it mainstream in time.

Much less, I think, would Veblen anticipate that these splintered groups would peacefully coexist within a larger society - largely minding their own business but generally sharing the core value of tolerance in enough supply to at least humour people with tastes very different from their own. For me the ability to selectively define taste, find a like-minded group, and consume according to those tastes was one of the big drivers of positive social change in the 20th century. Enjoyable consumption may be futile, insofar as it is not productive, but it is what separates "surviving" from "living" or even "thriving".

A flawed book in some of its conclusions, in my opinion, but well written and insightful. Needs to be considered in the context of the time and how things have changed, but otherwise a deeply interesting read.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Thorsten Veblen's writing is like eating the most delicious dessert in the world despite the fact that it has the unfortunate consistency of cold, lumpy oatmeal.

Not that his hella archaic wordstylez or quaint-yet-pervasive early-20th-century racism (evolutionary psychology much?) should stop you from tearing into his work.

Veblen was very much a technocrat (he believed engineers would organize the proletariat and overthrow the class hierarchy) and this work showcases that admirably well--his ideal world is a sort of collective hive where we each work towards the greater good of the community, eschewing such luxuries as the humanities.

Veblen's idea that conspicuous consumption is necessarily a byproduct of class predation is a rollicking good time, as far as ideas go. Much of his work feels basic and dated, but that just underlines the power and durability of his thesis. Plus institutional economics laid the groundwork for new institutional economics, which is totally bonertown (I mean that in the best possible way).

Worth reading if you're trying to shore up your marxism/non-classical economics game, or if you love hating on the bourgeoisie, either grande or petite. Not worth reading if you're allergic to dense verbiage or you're literally a walking, talking social justice tumblr.

[Andie · Rating 2 out of 5]

We spend money on silly stuff sometimes, and it's not admirable. There--now you don't have to read Conspicuous Consumption! I'm sure if I were a true intellectual I'd have found this small philosophical tome very engaging, but I'm not and I didn't.

[Brandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long winded. Repetitive. Could have made its point in half the length.

[ilke şenbahar · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting read. helped me to make sense of my new surroundings in life

[Anders · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book, like the Hoffer I just read, is best considered as a historical document. But before I get into that, I'll say that I've been reading books in this series for a while now (Penguin's Great Ideas). I'm a fan of them because I like the cover arts, I like the slimness, and it's an easy way to get a brief idea about conventionally important thinkers. However, many of them are comprised of excerpts from a much larger text. I can't help but feel in this case, there is a lot more context and argumentation in Veblen's The Leisure Class that would clarify the topic. Nevertheless, I think it's fair attempt to give the average reader an idea of what Veblen was up to. That being said, I'll comment on a few things...

1. As satire
So the back of the book calls this a "wrt portrayal" and a "withering satire" and I think its worth reflecting on the nature of satires...normally i'd consider them to be a bit more lively. But Veblen's is not just doing satire, its very truly wry in that its exclusively (as far as I know) academic satire. There's no ironic narrative, its just logical argumentation about why the upper class values the things it does, and why they do. E.g. The Leisure Class values ornate clothing because its useless and spending money is a means of demonstrating exactly that. Don't expect to get a good laugh out of this otherwise dry take on how useless the habits of the upper classes are, however withering it may be.

2. As economics
I had been under the impression that the book might delve more into the economics of things. And while it most definitely is economics, its far more suitably described as sociology. Of course, in this period, the two are nigh inseparable (and naturally in other periods, they are not unrelated either). I merely find it worth mentioning that there's not a whole lot of economics, per se, going on in these excerpts (unsure if there's more in the full book).

3. As an actual argument
While I found the satire of it to be less funny but eventually coherent as an argument for how the upper class functions and why-and this is not a point to be set aside; he does put a fine point on how the valuing determines how people make moral judgements (this is probably my fav aspect of the book/argument)-he unfortunately, as far as I can tell, doesn't quite fully explain how his argument works, instead leaving his satire to stand on its own. That is, although he describes the state of affairs of the leisure class and how they value things, he doesn't particularly make an argument that convinces you of that fact. So I guess I was ultimately expecting a little convincing and less laborious describing. I understand that the laborious prose was the style of such things at the time.

4. My misgivings
I've gone over the main issues, but the big one he throws down at the end is that...OF ALL THINGS...learning dead languages, and the study of classics in general, is the most useless and therefore the most valued of all pursuits. Sadly this is an assertion that the humanities struggle with even now. While it's interesting to note in passing that the more things change the more they stay the same, there are plenty of useful and applicable sets of knowledge to be gained from such study. Being a self-professed classicist myself, I'll not bore you with all my various rants on the subject. And I will note that such concessions would be against the grain of Veblen's satire. Nevertheless, I'm compelled to speak out in defense of my hobby horse, as it were. (I guess I did have a laugh about this after all, so you win with your satire here Veblen!)

An otherwise interesting and edifying read, a peculiarly unique academic satire, informative, but perhaps lacking in some respects.

[Brandon Woodward · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot comprehend why this book was written, why a single person bothered reading it, why a publisher was convinced to print and distribute it, and why why why it was included in Penguin's Great Ideas series—a collection of writings by THE GREATEST THINKERS WHO EVER EXISTED.

Here's how I think it went down: in the late 1800s, there was a college dropout who fancied himself a genius. In order to impress the world with his off-the-charts mega brain, he decided to pen a novel. He borrowed his father's dictionary, memorized five of the longest words he could find, and went to work. Staying up WAY past his bedtime, he word-vomited as many incoherent thoughts as he could muster. Aimless, verbose, and pretentious analysis furiously spilled onto the page. After laboring for an entire week (!!), his magnum opus was complete. Here are some of the most profound passages:

On lawns:

Everyday life affords many curious illustrations of the way in which the code of pecuniary beauty in articles of use varies from class to class, as well as of the way in which the conventional sense of beauty departs in its deliverances from the sense untutored by the requirements of pecuniary repute.

On sports:

The individual's habits of thought make an organic complex, the trend of which is necessarily in the direction of serviceability to the life process. When it is attempted to assimilate systematic waste or futility, as an end in life, into this organic complex, there presently supervenes a revulsion. But this revulsion of the organism may be avoided if the attention can be confined to the proximate, unreflected purpose of dexterous or emulative exertion.

On the humanities in higher education:

This contention of the leisure-class spokesmen of the humanities seems to be substantially sound. In point of substantial fact, the gratification and the culture, or the spiritual attitude or habit of mind, resulting from an habitual contemplation of the anthropomorphism, clannishness, and leisurely self-complacency of the gentleman of an early day, or from a familiarity with the animistic superstitions and the exuberant truculence of the Homeric heroes, for instance, is, æsthetically considered, more legitimate than the corresponding results derived from a matter-of-fact knowledge of things and a contemplation of latter-day civic or workmanlike efficiency.

He gave the book to some 12-year-old schoolchildren, and nervously awaited their brutal critiques. After the kids finished reading the book, they all stood and applauded, tears streaming down their tiny baby cheeks. A chant erupted from the crowd: "VEB-LEN! VEB-LEN!" They elected Veblen president of earth, where he gloriously reigns to this day. The end.

(And if this book is somehow a satire, then so is my review)

[dre dre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some absolute wild quotes I had to highlight:

"At a farther step backward in the cultural scale — among savage groups — the differentiation of employments is still less elaborate and the invidious distinction between classes and employments is less consistent and less rigorous. Unequivocal instances of a primitive savage culture are hard to find. Few of these groups or communities that are classes as ‘savage’ show no traces of regression from a more advanced cultural stage.”

"Wherever the circumstances or traditions of life lead to an habitual comparison of one person with another in point of efficiency, the instinct of workmanship works out in an emulative or invidious comparison of persons.”

“The substantial difference between the peaceable and the predatory phase of culture, therefore is a spiritual difference not a mechanical one. The change in spiritual attitude is the outgrowth of a change in the material facts of the life of the group, and it comes on gradually as the material circumstances favourable to a predatory attitude supervene.”

“Refined tastes, manners, and habits of life are a useful evidence of gentility, because good breeding requires time, application, and expense, and can therefore not be compassed by those whose time and energy are taken up with work.”

“So that, as the latter-day outcome of this evolution of an archaic institution, the wife, who was at the outset the drudge and chattel of the man, both in fact and in theory — the producer of good for him to consume — has become the ceremonial consumer of goods which he produces. But she still quite unmistakably remains his chattel in theory; for all the habitual rendering of vicarious leisure and consumption is the abiding mark of the unfree servant.”

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable, if intensely cynical, assessment of the evolution of modern economic life in the West. This text is more relevant today than when it was written about 100 years ago. Veblen pulls the curtains back to reveal the inner workings and the subconscious motivations lurking behind most of our day-to-day activities. I was particularly intrigued by his critique of sports.

Aside from getting used to a few out-of-date terms he uses, most of his arguments and analysis are shockingly perceptive. I couldn't believe I had never heard of him. The one argument that felt a little weak was his determination that a study of "the classics" is purely honorific and only serves the cultural function of demonstrating that the student has had a great deal of time and money to waste (thus planting them solidly within the leisure class).

I think this over-generalization weakens his argument, especially since this book itself can now be considered a classic. One of the main arguments for learning the classics is that they allow the student to ask and answer the big questions of life and so to align their values consciously rather than subconsciously. This, in turn orients their lifestyle and economic activity with things they consciously value rather than blindly consuming and keeping their nose to the grindstone their entire lives. Are there classic texts that are a waste of time for most people to read? Of course. But to lump all classic texts under the same mantle like that is just inaccurate and might demonstrate an inability to appreciate the nuances of the situation.

[Antony Monir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top tier sarcasm. Some of the examples used aren’t necessarily the best at supporting Veblen’s thesis but his ideas generally hold up pretty well (minus the strange racial terminology. I guess it’s a pretty old book). This is a short book but relatively dense due to Veblen’s verbose writing style. It is a decidedly non utilitarian style of writing, and it is likely indicative of many years spent acquiring vocabulary that is superfluous to basic communication. So in a sense, it is a way for Veblen to show how much leisure time he has:

“Elegant diction, whether in writing or speaking, is an effective means of reputability. It is of moment to know with some precision what is the degree of archaism conventionally required in speaking on any given topic. Usage differs appreciably from the pulpit to the marketplace; the latter, as might be expected, admits the use of relatively new and effective words and turns of expression, even by fastidious persons. A discriminate avoidance of neologisms is honorific, not only because it argues that time has been wasted in acquiring the obsolescent habit of speech, but also as showing that the speaker has from infancy habitually associated with persons who have been familiar with the obsolescent idiom” A+ for the humour ;) 4/5

[Grzegorz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rich people need to show that they're rich and so they're investing time and money into things that may be useless but show other people that "they can afford to lose time and money to do that just because". The same applies even to language, someone who is deliberately using classic language and avoid colloquial sentences may want to distance himself from the class of people who are using colloquial language.

It was very interesting read, but seemed like in few parts it might be a little outdated, oldschool type of sociology - everything was based on conclusions from some facts, no data or research was done. It was also overgeneralization, as it seems like rich people do everything just to show their status and they don't own some things or learn fancy things for the pleasure, because it's stylish and nice etc but only to "use it as a proof of being rich". I don't think so...

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get your dictionaries out for this one as the vocabulary used is quite flowery.

Common words used such as:
- Decorum
- Pecuniary
- Histrionic
- Chicanery
- Proprietary

Overall though it’s a fabulous and short book. If you can tend with the vocabulary it’s a good lens to look at the status games that drive human behaviour.

I would go so far as to say there is actually quite a comedic element to this book I really enjoyed that while probably written in earnest also expresses some wit even if not intended.

5/5 in that it demystifies cultural ritual and intentions behind much of our economic system. Things have more value in status than they do in functions, and this extends to an organisation’s staff.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A treatise on economics and social critique of conspicuous consumption, as a function of social class and of consumerism, derived from the social stratification of people and the division of labour, beginning from feudal times to the modern era.

The Leisure Class
Conspicuous Leisure: Status and Servants
Conspicuous Consumption: Women, Luxury Goods and Connoisseurship
Canons of Taste: Greenery and Pets
Admissions to the Leisure Class
Survivals of Primitive Male Prowess: Fighting and Sports
Conspicuous Uselessness of Education

[Sho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I keep picking this up, reading a page or two and putting it down again for ages. It's actually an absolutely fascinating topic and relevant as much today (in the age of "the 1%" and raging inequality) as it was when it was published in 1899.

As a modern feminist it's infuriating to be reading about women (the lady-of-the-house, as in the wife of the monied, leisured man) being on effectively the same level as a servant. It does, however, serve to remind me how far women have come in terms of gaining human rights but also how far we have to go in terms of equality of opportunity.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised when, upon searching for the book on goodreads, I was assured that this is a satire. Perhaps I'm being slow (I have been ill lately), but I just thought this was impenetrable waffle. Maybe that was deliberate, and all part of the satire? Which, in turn, might be proof that it's satire gone wrong. I don't feel strongly enough about the book to unpack all it's possible layers of questionable meaning. Occasionally I thought I glimpsed some suggestion of an argument, but such things were gone long before they could be satisfactorily identified.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking with the thoughts on economic status transform the mentality and values of generations. The work has shortcomings which are more obvious with a hundred years of distance from its initial publication. One shortcoming is a near all encompassing focus on class as the determinant to what constitutes luxury or leisure class goods. That also serves as an insight. Applying these thoughts to today's world is difficult and would require a very careful approach.