One Pair of Hands: From Upstairs to Downstairs, in this charming 1930s memoir

by Monica Dickens

'Life was a wordless battle of wits between us, with her keeping a sharp look-out for signs of neglect, and me trying to disguise my slovenliness by subterfuge. I became an adept at sweeping dust under the bed, and always used the same few pieces of silver'

Unimpressed by the world of debutante balls, Monica Dickens shocked her family by getting a job. With no experience whatsoever, she gained employment as a cook-general.

Monica's cooking and cleaning skills left much to be desired, and her first few positions were short lived, but soon she started to hold her own. Monica discovered the pleasure of daily banter with the milkman and grocer's boy and the joy of doing an honest day's work, all the while keeping a wry eye on the childish pique of her employers.

One Pair of Hands is a fascinating and thoroughly entertaining memoir of life upstairs and downstairs in the early 1930s.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Humor, History, Food, British Literature

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

From the publisher: MONICA DICKENS, born in 1915, was brought up in London and was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Her mother's German origins and her Catholicism gave her the detached eye of an outsider; at St Paul's Girls' School she was under occupied and rebellious. After drama school she was a debutante before working as a cook. One Pair of Hands (1939), her first book, described life in the kitchens of Kensington. It was the first of a group of semi autobiographies of which Mariana (1940), technically a novel, was one. 'My aim is to entertain rather than instruct,' she wrote. 'I want readers to recognise life in my books.' In 1951 Monica Dickens married a US naval officer, Roy Stratton, moved to America and adopted two daughters. An extremely popular writer, she involved herself in, and wrote about, good causes such as the Samaritans. After her husband died she lived in a cottage in rural Berkshire, dying there in 1992.
http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/page...

Reviews

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just head over heels in love with Monica Dickens and her hilarious memoirs. Her writing is wonderful and so full of life I can't stop laughing as I am introduced to a variety of strange and eccentric characters that she has to work with. This memoir follows her life as a cook in various houses. It's fascinating to hear about her duties and her accounts are so rich and funny i sometimes forget I'm reading a true story. Wonderful, wonderful woman, her great grandfather would be so proud 😉

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book, because I heard it was humorous, and it is!

The author, Monica Dickens (1915-1992) is the great granddaughter of Charles Dickens. She’s the granddaughter of Dicken’s eighth child. She writes here of her year and a half working as a domestic cook-general, meaning she not only cooked but also helped with general chores such as cleaning, serving, washing up, tidying and any miscellaneous chores the family employing her requested. What is delivered here is an upstairs -downstairs story, but it’s true. This is a memoir, not fiction. Monica is twenty at the time. It's the 1930s. She works at posh country estates and more modest households in London.

What makes the book special is its humorous prose. Personality-wise, Monica is direct. She tells us what she thinks of her employers and fellow workmates. She’s not the bragging type; she readily reveals her mistakes, but she in no way humiliate herself. She simply states what she did and what others said and what happened as a result. She’s upfront, straightforward and direct. I like the style.

The style convincingly portrays the reality of upstairs versus downstairs lives in the England of the 1930s.

Hannah Gordon reads the audiobook. We meet people from different classes and backgrounds. Gordon modulates her tone of voice to capture each one as that person would sound. This is so well done, I’ve decided to give the narration five stars! Her narration makes me feel I am there on the spot watching as events roll out.

Just because Monica’s great grandfather was the Charles Dickens, it doesn’t necessarily mean this book will be good. It proved to be so! I like the author’s directness and humor. She has a style of her own. Books should vary. Here’s one that’s refreshingly direct and it makes you laugh.

***********************

*One Pair Of Hands 4 stars
*One Pair of Feet TBR
*Mariana TBR
*Kate and Emma TBR
*The Winds of Heaven TBR
*The House at World's End TBR

[Post Scriptum · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Teribbile”!

Monica Dickens, figlia di una facoltosa famiglia, pronipote del grande scrittore, per assaporare il gusto della vita vera, abbandona i privilegi e inizia a lavorare come domestica. Dall’avventura nasce un libro.
Quanto possono essere tristi certi parti, mi dico.
Assunta e licenziata – nel primo capitolo – dalla La signorina Cattermole.
Assunta e licenziata – nel secondo capitolo - dalla signora Robertson, e poi assunta dalla signorina Faulkene.
Nel terzo capitolo, licenziata dalla signorina Faulkene e assunta dal signor Parrish che se la tiene fino alla fine del quinto capitolo. Pover’uomo.
Nel mezzo, uova rotte, cadute, bruciate. Stoviglie e accessori vari malridotti.
Ci sarebbero altri dieci capitoli. Io mi fermo qui.
Cara Monica Dickens, sarà anche la pronipote del noto Charles, ma che due palle!
Pensavo a una camomilla letteraria, qualcosa che mi accompagnasse sorridendo fra le braccia di Morfeo. E invece sono bastati cinque capitoli per scatenare il mio spirito omicida.
Il libro, da su, è andato giù. Definitivamente. Dalle scale. Insieme a Monica.
Amen.

[QNPoohBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monica is a 1930s socialite who got kicked out of drama school for refusing to wear the school hat. With nothing to do but go out every night, she's bored and wants something to do. She gets the great idea to become a cook, having taken a class on French cuisine. When she lands her first job as a cook-general, she discovers that taking one class is not the same as being a chef. She chronicles her disastrous escapades over the 18 months she spent as a cook/maid in London and the countryside. She even spent time as a cook in a country house, complete with snooty servants.

This memoir is a hoot. Monica's cooking skills are just so bad! She handles her failures well, using humor to make the situation seem a little less awful than it was. I couldn't put it down until I found out how long she stayed at her job and what happened during that time. I did find it repetitive at times-one spectacular failure after another, but her failures are so funny and charming that I couldn't help but become engrossed in her adventures. She had a few successes as well but those were glossed over, of course, in favor of the failures. This is a must read for anyone who has had an awful job or anyone who has repeatedly cooked for other people. Fans of Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey will also enjoy this look at life downstairs, and enjoy the country house scene.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this memoir, which was originally published in 1939, about a debutante girl's experiment of trying a life of domestic service after having completed a course in a cooking school. It's hard to say why exactly she does this. Certainly not economic necessity -- she is demurely reticent about her own family's circumstances, but they appear quite well off. She presents it as the simple result of boredom with the same-old society whirl and the whimsical desire to try something different, although I think she's being disingenuous and had publication in mind all along. She took a series of jobs, most of them of short duration, mostly involving cooking, but many with housework thrown in, and one with childcare. Most of her employers are appalling in various ways -- sometimes this is funny and sometimes it's not. It's not always comfortable reading, and there are far too many scenes like one's worst anxiety-dreams in which things are going hopelessly wrong in the kitchen while she has to rush upstairs to open the door to the well dressed dinner guests, and comes back to find everything burning, the souffle collapsed, etc. Sometimes Dickens is funny and likable -- and sometimes not. I didn't like her so much when she was on a train on her way to take a job as the head cook in an establishment reminiscent of Downton Abbey (an interlude that strains credulity a bit, as she was 22 when the book was published, and it's hard to believe she had the gravitas to take on this position). Deciding to "live the part," she writes, "At Paddington I settled myself diffidently into the corner of a carriage, and read a twopenny Home Blitherings, my face, innocent of makeup shining like a young moon and my unrouged lips moving with absorbed delight as I followed the lines with my finger." Just a wee bit condescending there, Monica. After a year and a half, she got so worn down at a job where she was both cook and maid of all work -- actually one of the few places where she liked her employer -- that she called a halt to the experiment. After a long period of sleeping and luxurious baths she took up her society life again, with no particular indication that she realized she was lucky to have this choice. The book's interesting enough as a period piece, but not one I'll be returning to again and again.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much to review here. A pleasant enough book about author's time as a cook general in several households. The writer is Charles Dickens great-granddaughter. Published in 1939.

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dickens’ account of the period of over one year she spent in domestic service when one fine day she found herself fed up with society life. She may have been kicked out of drama school but she does use what little acting talent she has to create a persona (or rather personas depending on where she went) more suitable to a domestic, complete with widowed mother who must have her at home every evening. She goes through an assortment of jobs―short term ones, “permanent” ones, and some just for the day―she becomes cook, cook-general, waitress, scullery maid on different occasions―and through employers, kind and not so kind, but most of whom expect more of her than is humanly possible. The result is endless backbreaking work and very tiring days. Sounds dreary you think? It most certainly must have been but Dickens’ account of it is almost the opposite, her writing making all she describes very funny indeed (situations she finds herself in, people, and most of all, her own lack of experience and to an extent, efficiency, which gets her into her fair share of scrapes), as she goes from job to job, trying to cope (she has had training in some “fancy” French cooking but isn’t quite up to the mark with more basic things like boiling an egg), making friends with the other staff, gossiping, enjoying her employers’ rows, and even sweeping the dust under the bed―she does (work aside) enjoy herself thoroughly. A very entertaining and fun read (except the last chapter which had her delivering a lecture on her experiences, which seemed to assume a more serious tone (though there were funny bits in that too) ―somehow not in line with the rest).

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to start by addressing the elephant in the room - namely that some readers were put off by the author's taking on a series of jobs, while usually returning to her privileged background at the end of the day. This didn't bother me at all, since she gave it everything she had under what at times were difficult circumstances. Moreover, the fact that she was able to serve as temporary staff so often, rather than being locked into a position by necessity, had more to do with her not being cut out for a long-term permanent position generally.

I was impressed that she made the most of situations where she was clearly in over her head, as well as her ability to deal with difficult employers. Taking into account that the events are told from her point of view, she got along very well with the other working-class folks in her world, so she couldn't have been coming off as any sort of condescending upper-class snob; she shows them respect and affection where deserved.

As far as employers go, she runs the spectrum from the first guy, a self-impressed jerk, to a few weeks cooking for an incredibly nice family where the mother is terminally ill.

The details of the cooking itself are interesting as she's sometimes forced to improvise on the spur of the moment to produce a meal that will pass muster with the employer. Moreover, a reminder that she couldn't just drop by Sainsbury's to pick up out of season vegetables as needed either - you worked with what you could get.

I found this one easily the most approachable of her three on-the-job books, purchasing her biography Monica: A Life of Monica Dickens after finishing this one.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by my English teacher at school; read it and then again much later - it's very funny. Very English too - of a certain decade. I checked, written in 1939. And Yes, she was the grand-daughter, no, great, grand-daughter of Charles.

[(P)Ila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monica Dickens, pronipote del caro vecchio Charles, racconta in questo volume le sue avventure come cuoca tuttofare alle dipendenze di varie famiglie nell'Inghilterra del primo novecento.
Questo volume è il primo di una trilogia in cui l'autrice ci narra le sue avventure lavorative, in effetti siamo davanti ad un vero e proprio memoir: ci racconta di essere nata in una famiglia benestante in cui lavorare non era per lei né un obbligo né una necessità ma racconta anche che, ribelle sin dall'infanzia, ad un certo punto della sua vita sentì il bisogno di fare qualcosa, di rendersi produttiva e di abbandonare una vita che le stava stretta, piena di convenzioni ed estremamente noiosa. E' così che un giorno lascia la vita oziosa che conduce e si cerca un lavoro, non avendo nessuna esperienza e avendo seguito qualche corso di cucina decide di presentarsi come una cuoca tuttofare (ovvero all'occorrenza anche cameriera e donna delle pulizie).

Le avventure, o più spesso le disavventure, della Dickens rendono questo volume davvero divertente, l'autrice in effetti racconta le sue giornate con una ricca dose di ironia, non risparmiando nemmeno se stessa ma soprattutto i suoi datori di lavoro, con l'ovvio risultato di far sorridere il lettore.
Il quadro che dipinge l'autrice non è certamente positivo nei riguardi dei suoi titolari anzi spesso è spietata nel descrivere le strane manie o gli atteggiamenti di superiorità che inevitabilmente assumono certi personaggi e al contrario è come se cercasse di assecondare in ogni occasione gli appartenenti ad una classe inferiore; ad alcuni questo aspetto potrebbe far storcere il naso ma credo anche che sia del tutto naturale, una volta immersi nella vita downstairs, non riuscire completamente a prendere le parti o giustificare la vita upstairs.
Nonostante questo aspetto, che può piacere o meno, la cosa importante è che Monica Dickens sia stata capace di ricreare perfettamente, con un intento simpatico, un mondo, quello della vita a servizio, ormai dimenticato e molto lontano dai giorni nostri. Le avventure sono tantissime e i guai che combina anche, potrebbe a lungo andare risultare leggermente ripetitivo per chi non ama questo genere di lettura, ovviamente si tratta sempre di siparietti al servizio dell'alta borghesia ma ogni padrone di casa avrà qualcosa di nuovo da mostrare, una nuova personalità, delle nuove fisse e modi diversi di rivolgersi alla servitù.

L'intento della Dickens è in primis quello di divertire il lettore dedicando qualche ora spensierata al volume, non si tratta infatti di un accurato quadro sociale dell'Inghilterra dell'epoca, e per quello che mi riguarda fa benissimo il proprio dovere: ci si diverte e si sorride spesso. Certamente non mancano i temi tipici come le differenze di classe sociale, gli abusi o le lotte personali ma tutto è impregnato da un senso dell'umorismo davvero forte che non può che far da padrone.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great-granddaughter of Charles, Monica Dickens was a debutante from a wealthy family in the 1930's. As a young woman, she grew bored of "going out to parties that one doesn't enjoy, with people one doesn't even like." Much to her family's surprise, she decides to "go into service," working as a cook-general for the wealthy "on the other side of the green baize door." This memoir covers her day-to-day life during the year and a half she spent going from job to job. It's quite funny, but it's also a social commentary on British life at the time, class distinctions, and the difference between working and a life of leisure. She's quite honest about the fact that, as a servant, she (and other servants) listens in on her employers' conversations, goes through their personal things, and uses up their food and drink for herself and her co-workers. She also doesn't worry too much about the quality of her work, admitting to sweeping stuff under beds, accidentally dripping soap into soup, and dropping food on the floor and serving it anyway. As she says, "what a mercy it is that mistresses don't see the back-stage details of a dinner party, they probably wouldn't eat a thing if they did." The employers are presented with the same honesty. Some are downright rude and obnoxious, some are nicer, but even the good ones can be condescending. "It's a curious game that people like to play sometimes, drawing out a maid...in order to get amusement out of the screamingly funny idea that she may have some sort of a human life of her own. Nice people like the Vaughans laugh with you, others laugh at you; but it comes to the same thing in the end...You have to humour them by saying amusing and slightly outrageous things so they can retail them to their friends, or 'dine out' on quotations from your conversation." On the whole, I was fascinated by this book and plan to try to find some of her other ones. She was prolific and took on many other interesting jobs before finally devoting her self to charitable work.

[La Fenice Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

LA FENICE BOOK

Ho letto la trama e mi pareva qualcosa di molto carino poi ho letto la biografia dell'autrice Monica Dickens e non immaginate minimamente chi sia ...lei mi ha colpito tanto, quindi ho deciso di leggere questo romanzo. Vi ricorda qualcuno il suo cognome? Si forse avrete capito a chi appartiene... il grande Dickens!

Monica Dickens era nata a Londra nel 1915 nella celebre e facoltosa famiglia Dickens, pronipote del grande scrittore, delusa dal mondo in cui era cresciuta, decise di lasciare i privilegi della sua condizione per lavorare come domestica. Sulla base della sua esperienza diretta scrisse nel 1939 Su e giù per le scale, a cui seguì One Pair of Feet, dove raccontò il suo lavoro in ospedale, e l’autobiografia An Open Book. Trasferitasi negli Stati Uniti, visse tra Washington e il Massachusetts, sposò un ufficiale della Marina, continuò a scrivere e si dedicò a numerose cause umanitarie. Morì a Reading nel 1992.

Una vita molto avventurosa direi. Qui in questo volume "One Pair of Hands" viene proprio narrata una parte della sua vita, nella quale aveva rinnegato la sua classe e accolto quella di cameriera/cuoca/tuttofare per essere indipendente, ribelle e libera ma il suo modo di fare non era del tutto conforme, la sua vita troppo agiata per poter sprofondare in quella povertà d'altri tempi e tutto ciò la portava a licenziarsi con estrema facilità e a non sfruttare a pieno le sue doti. Non sapeva cucinare, era una frana con le pulizie e se poteva nascondeva tutto. "Occhio non vede cuore no duole" era il suo motto.

L'abilità di scrivere di Monica Dickens è sorprendente, un romanzo così semplice poterebbe annoiare perché si ripetono sempre gli stessi passaggi e le stesse mansioni ma lei con la sua verve, la sua capacità di tenere viva l'attenzione sulle sue vicissitudini porta a concludere l'opera in pochissimo tempo senza che la stessa dia noia. L'arte di scrivere e il linguaggio usato naturalmente non ha nulla a che vedere con questi nuovi romanzi che circolano ma è qualcosa con terminologia, punteggiatura e scrittura lineare, ben studiata e perfettamente spuntata.

Due stili il suo e quello di suo Zio diversi vissuti in tempi diversi ma pur sempre con una nota predominante per la scrittura. Una scrittura soffice, uniforme e chiara. La protagonista che sarebbe lei stessa ha una nota sorprendente anche nella sua incapacità, con mille grilli per la testa, mille idee e tanta voglia di fare. I personaggi che le girano intorno in ogni casa sono descritti in maniera variegata ma pur sempre perfetti e senza nessun segno di sbiadimento.

Tutto è concentrato in sole duecento pagine, un piccolo diario dove ella stessa ha voluto descrivere questo piccolo periodo della sua vita. Spero vivamente di leggere il seguito One Pair of Feet dove lei andò a lavorare come infermiera.

Una donna forte che si è voluta eguagliare a molte donne di ora anche contro il volere della sua famiglia. Una bella avventura raccontata con il sudore e la sofferenza di chi ha goduto della bellezza delle cose e poi le ha lasciate andare per suo volere.

Un piccolo capolavoro sull'emancipazione femminile!

[Paola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsettled by her life of meaningless partying as a debutante in the England between the two wars, Monica Dickens enter "service" undercover to get a radical change of perspective in her life.

Yes of course we know she does it by choice and not because she has no other alternatives - she can choose to say that her mother is a war widower, she can go back to the comfort of her home, she can take humiliations safe in the knowledge that she is socially the equal (or better) of most of the families she works for. Yet for precisely these reasons the uncomprehending pettiness of her employers so hung up on "the servant problem", who cannot fathom that each ring for service puts a spanner in the servants' works, comes across as very grating. With humour and levity she still pulls great punches - for instance:

A maid makes a good defenceless listener for people who want to talk about themselves and not be answered back.

or worse:

It is a curious game that people like to play sometimes, drawing out the maid (baiting the butler in some houses), in order to get amusement out of the screamingly funny idea that she may have some sort of a human life of her own. Nice people like the Vaughans laugh with you, others laugh at you; but it comes to the same thing in the end. Once you get used to the idea of being suddenly hauled out from the oblivion of servitude into the spotlight of attention, and expected to provide entertainment until they just as suddenly tire of you, and intimate that you have said your piece, it’s quite an easy game to play. You have to humour them by saying amusing and slightly outrageous things so that they can retail them to their friends, or ‘dine out’ on quotations from your conversation.

Lovely little book.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir that Monica Dickens (great granddaughter of Charles) wrote about her time as a cook-general. I'm not entirely sure why she decided to do this, her family weren't short of a big or two, she claims boredom, and since she had done a course at a French cookery school so why not.

I think this was the first book she wrote and I didn't think the writing style was that great but it was interesting to read about the 'servant program's from the other side.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

Monica Dickens, great granddaughter of Charles Dickens and a former debutante who was presented at court, rebelled against (high) society, and then wrote this fictionalized account of the year and a half or two she spent working in service (aka servant--mostly as what in England was called a Cook-General, or cook who also did housework), and this was published when she was only 24, so this happened fairly young. For those unfamiliar with the much stronger classism in England than in the States or Canada, this was quite a big deal because she didn't have to do this, but was bored and not qualified to do anything else. It's quite funny as we see life Below Stairs as well as up. She isn't particularly adept at the work, so is laughing at herself as much as others. She later moved onto other work, because she found it boring to live a life of leisure and didn't get married until she was 35.

Dickens, whose books were as popular as those of Daphne DuMaurier's back then (she wrote about 50 of them), went on to start the first American branch of The Samaritans, a worldwide volunteer organization that counsels people who are depressed and suicidal.

[Claire P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adore this book. I've read it multiple times, and (like the Provincial Lady series) it never disappoints. Yes, it is a relatively light and fluffy true tale of a mildly aristocratic young lady who wants to see how the other half lives and hires herself out as a maidservant in Britain in the 1930s. It's beautifully written - she's a relative of Charles Dickens - and great fun. She learns a few lessons along the way, but it's never mawkish or sentimental. It's just one of those books that makes me happy.

[Monica. A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una lettura piuttosto inutile.
In questo caso non si può dire: "buon sangue non mente".
Monica Dickens, nelle cui vene scorre il sangue del suo celebre antenato, scrive un romanzo che vorrebbe essere umoristico sulle sue esperienze lavorative in ambito culinario.
Di estrazione sociale medio borghese, decide di entrare nel mondo del lavoro a servizio di famiglie più o meno benestanti.
La decisione piuttosto assurda nasce dopo aver frequentato un corso di cucina, si suppone che volesse farne buon uso. Lavora per non so quante famiglie, in modo maldestro e ottuso, combinando disastri e non imparando assolutamente nulla dai suoi errori. Non so se il lato comico dovesse essere trovato nel cibo bruciato, nelle uova rotte o nei suoi intrugli dati in pasto ai cani dei padroni o forse nelle descrizioni che faceva dei suoi datori di lavoro. Io non ci ho trovato nulla di divertente, anzi. Una lettura piatta e senza senso, una trama inesistente limitata ad una lista di lavori presi e abbandonati velocemente.
Il meccanismo è sempre lo stesso:
1. Va in agenzia per un lavoro.
2. Inizia a combinare disastri vari, fedelmente annotati ed intervallati da vizi e virtù dei malcapitati padroni di turno.
3. Si stanca e si licenzia.
Tutto questo si ripete fino alla fine quando, nell'ultimo capito, rinsavisce e dopo una settimana di dormite colossali e bagni purificanti, per liberarsi degli odori della cucina, ritorna ad essere se stessa, benestante e senza il bisogno di lavorare per vivere, ma con piccolo gruzzoletto da spendere.
Penso proprio che mi risparmierò la fatica di leggere gli altri suoi romanzi che, a giudicare dal titolo, sembrano essere simili a questo.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Pair of Hands è il primo di tre volumi autobiografici in cui l'autrice racconta la sua esperienza come cuoca (One Pair of Hands), infermiera ausiliaria (One Pair of Feet) e giornalista (My Turn to Make the Tea). Monica Dickens (incidentalmente, pronipote di Charles Dickens, sì proprio lui) apparteneva ad una famiglia benestante dell'alta borghesia ma, dopo la scuola di rito, un'esperienza a Parigi da aspirante attrice e la mancata presentazione a corte, decide che la vita oziosa tipica della sua classe sociale è troppo noioso, e decide di trovarsi un lavoro. Non sapendo fare nulla, ed avendo seguito alcuni corsi di cucina, Monica si propone pertanto come cook general (cuoca assunta anche nella mansione di cameriera e donna delle pulizie)

One Pair of Hands è un libro divertente, condito da abbondante ironia (e abbondantissima autoironia) e che a tratti mi ha fatto decisamente ridere, e non solo sorridere. Leggendo la pagina di wikipedia dedicata a Monica Dickens, ho scoperto che il suo obiettivo come scrittrice era di far divertire la gente, di scrivere romanzi in cui le persone potessero riconoscere la vita reale. Considerando che è ambientato non solo in Inghilterra ma anche negli anni Trenta, per me è difficile riconoscermi in questo mondo, ma sicuramente la Dickens non ha fallito per quanto riguarda il divertimento, e One Pair of Hands si può leggere anche un pochino come un libro di storia sociale, perché l'autrice pur non commentando il mondo intorno a sé lo descrive vividamente.

Certo qualche lettore ha puntato il dito sulle descrizioni a volte un po' crudeli delle persone che la Dickens ha incontrato nei suoi lavori, e anche su una certa condiscendenza nei confronti di una classe sociale più bassa della sua ma non necessariamente composta da sempliciotti. C'è anche da dire che - sebbene l'autrice non si vanti mai della sua scelta di intraprendere un lavoro meniale pur non avendone assolutamente bisogno - dà un po' di rabbia l'attitudine a volte menefreghista che oppone a certi datori di lavoro o a certe situazioni, ben sapendo che lei se lo può permettere, ma gli altri no, dato che se vengono licenziati non possono tornare a casa da mamma e papà. D'altra parte però la Dickens è così brava a ricreare davanti ai nostri occhi un mondo ormai perduto (quello del servizio domestico) e un mondo così universale (quello del lavoratore non perfetto, anzi a volte un po' sfaticato, che cerca di cavarsela senza saper fare un granché ed è comunque, a fine giornata, una persona e non solo un dipendente. Certo se cercate commento sociale non è questo il libro giusto per voi (suggerisco Below Stairs di Margaret Powell) però se cercate qualche risata e un bel po' di identificazione, questo memoir è decisamente consigliato.

http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...

In realtà ho letto questa edizione:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monica is bored. Her life as a debutante is an endless round of exhausting gaiety and 'pointless' parties. She had tried the stage, and dressmaking, and neither seemed to be her cup of tea. What next?

“I felt restless, dissatisfied, and abominably bad-tempered...

...so I turned to cooking. That was the thing which interested me most and about which I thought I knew quite a lot. I had had a few lessons from my ‘Madame’ in Paris, but my real interest was aroused by lessons I had at a wonderful school of French cookery in London... I.. came out with Homard Thermidor and Crepes Suzette at my fingertips. I was still unable to boil an egg, however, or roast a joint of beef. “

However,

“When I told my family that I was thinking of taking a cooking job, the roars of laughter were rather discouraging.”

“One Pair of Hands” follows Monica, the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens himself, as she takes one cooking job after another in London, burning sauces, frantically preparing dinners for parties of ten and, in the process, dropping dishes and helping herself to the cooking sherry. Some of her employers are kind (although there is always the ‘servant-class mindset’ present. Little did they know that Monica was from the upper class), but Monica finds to her dismay that often the servants are looked down on and treated as second-rate, mindless employees.

After a year and a half, Monica is just plain tired and she decides that it is time to make a change.

“Our memories are merciful; they store up details of happiness much more readily than details of sorrow. We, however, respond ungratefully by indulging our innate passion for self-torture by turning remembrance into regret. In the end the memory of something perfect becomes even sadder than the memory of despair, for we torment ourselves with the thought that it can never be quite the same again.”

What a lighthearted memoir! The author's entertaining vignettes of her life as a cook and maid are hilarious! I really enjoyed this one and it was a fast read.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bored debutante decides to get a glimpse of how the other half lives, and on the strength of a couple of cooking classes plunges into life as a "cook-general" in 1930s London. Of course she takes nothing seriously, and sells her nonexistent skills shamelessly everywhere from a small London flat to a stately home. She seems to feel she's "putting one over" on each person who hires her. One feels there must be quite a bit of poetic licence somewhere, either re: her actual abilities or re: the employers' reactions. Ms Dickens breaks china, keeps a filthy kitchen, sweeps the dirt under the beds, and "commits nonsenses" day after day until she suddenly "realises" that she doesn't have to do this...after all, she's actually worked for her living for a whole 18 months. (On and off. Between trips to Alsace and returns to her well-to-do family home.)

I was strongly reminded of the dying days of the old BBC "Holiday" programme, during which they sent several young English middle-class brats to temporary positions in tourist areas of other countries. The segments were obviously meant to be comical to the British viewer, but their don't-care, "Yeah, whatever" attitudes grated on their employers (and some of the clients) as they consistently arrived hours late, brought the wrong things back from market, and did the minimum of work to slide by.

A light, quick read by someone who can at least handle the language properly, though her attitudes and posing made her less than endearing to this working-class girl.

[Sonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Divertida, sincera y perspicaz.
La narración de sus experiencias de veinteañera acomodada sumergida en el mundo del servicio doméstico en los años 30 están llenas de anécdotas donde muestra una mirada directa y socarrona sobre sus empleadores. Sus descripciones son, en ocasiones, sarcásticas pero en general muestra bastante amabilidad hacia la mayoría de los personajes que deambulan por sus páginas.
Lo que más me ha gustado es la autocrítica, no se da tregua y no se esconde (¡es un desastre!).

Upstairs, downstairs en la vida real.

Echo en falta más reflexión sobre lo que le llevó -en una sociedad tan clasista como la británica-, a dejar su vida privilegiada para pasar año y medio sirviendo a otros -de su mismo e incluso más bajo extracto social-.

[LaCitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Monica Dickens è la nipote dell'esimio Charles e in questo romanzo autobiografico racconta della sua esperienza come cuoca e donna delle pulizie presso facoltose famiglie inglesi. Intendiamoci, Monica è una ragazza di buona famiglia con conoscenze altolocate, ma ad un certo punto decide di voler fare questa esperienza.
Pur essendo carino e scorrevole, mi sono trascinata la lettura di meno di 200 pagine per una decina di giorni. Non ci sono entrata molto in sintonia e le sue avventure (o meglio disavventure) nelle case in cui ha lavorato, mi sono sembrate complessivamente ripetitive. Insomma, non brutto, ma nemmeno appassionante.

[Cera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monica Dickens (grand-daughter of the famous Charles) decided to see how the 'other half' lived by hiding her privileged background and taking on a variety of jobs as a cook-general during the 1930s, when servants were becoming so hard to find in England that a girl with no experience had no trouble finding a position. The book is certainly funny, but there are moments when her knowledge that she can quit at any time and go back to her comfortable life is pretty grating. It's still a fun read, though, and an interesting look at a way of life which has pretty thoroughly vanished.

[Becky Marietta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. LOVED. IT. I laughed my booty off the whole way through it (though sometimes my hands covered my mouth in horror at the scraps Ms. Dickens got herself into). Such a great book; man, those Dickenses have writing in the blood, don't they? Her characters were every bit as rich as her great-great-grandpapa's.

[LindyLouMac · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a long time ago but I still remember this as being very funny as were the rest in the series.

[Julie Durnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Not as interesting as I'd hoped. Monica comes off as kind of a grown up version of Amelia Bedelia, so in that respect her situations are amusing!

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gentle, amusing and well-written…

This is an interesting and entertaining memoir of the period when Monica Dickens (great-granddaughter of Charles of that ilk) decided to work for a time as a cook-housekeeper. As a daughter of a well-off family in the ‘30s, she had no need to work for money but, bored with a life revolving around social events and parties, Monica had taken some cookery courses and then discovered that her family’s own cook did not take kindly to her interfering in the kitchen.

So she signed up with an employment agency and found herself, despite her inexperience and self-confessed inefficiency, in a series of jobs ranging from cooking and cleaning in the flat of a bachelor to being the cook in a large country house.

The book provides a below-stairs look at the life of the servant at that time. Working sometimes from 7 a.m. till 11 at night, with employers ranging from the kind and helpful to the downright rude and obnoxious, it certainly wasn’t a life of ease. However, Monica found compensations in the joy of having her own kitchen and in the fun of getting to know the other servants as well as the constant stream of tradesmen who in those days delivered supplies on an almost daily basis to the houses of the wealthy. Having a healthy curiosity, she also took interest in the on-goings of the ‘above-stairs’ families and provides us with humorous and, in the main, affectionate portraits of all these varied characters.

I first read this gentle, amusing and well-written book many years ago and am glad to see it re-published. Although it was written over 70 years ago, it’s still an enjoyable read – Miss Dickens’ wickedly observant eye and lack of deference has allowed it to age gracefully. Recommended.

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[Squeak2017 · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is an attempt to be funny showing someone clumsily muddling their way through something they have only been sketchily taught to do with no experience or help. Or basic common sense. It reads like a laundry list of ridiculously stupid domestic dramas (spoiler: if you get a hot dish out of the oven with a thin cloth, you will burn your hand). If you find this funny then you are welcome to it. The subtext is a turnaround of the usual thirties novel lamenting the servant problem (the archetypal comic, lazy servant complaining about her workload) by showing that domestic staff have much to bear from their unreasonable and demanding employers. It is appalling that she suffered an unfair dismissal after being groped by her employer’s boyfriend and was expected to subsidise household bills by a selfish and rich old man who paid up only reluctantly. But it really isn’t funny. Housework is tiring and dull, employers are capricious and life is just too short to finish this dreary book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for humor and excellent character descriptions. This is the story of an upper class girl, Monica (related to Charles Dickens!), who takes on a series of jobs as a cook in 1930s England because she got kicked out of drama school and is bored with her posh, fun-only lifestyle. She puts her dramatic inclinations to excellent use in recounting her exploits and adventures. I laughed out loud many times. Her mishaps as a cook are so funny (albeit occasionally painful to a tidy cook like myself) and the various friendships she strikes up with the other domestics are so fun.

[Sula · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. There's several memoirs of domestic life out there, but this one stands out due to its skilful and humorous writing. I think what also adds to its telling is that the author is in fact a debutante, and therefore has a slightly different perspective to all the proceedings. The only reason it is not fully 5 stars is that towards the end it starts to feel a bit samey.