~ Stephen King

Given to me by a friend who knows I am a snob about many things (hopefully with humor!), I found this book to be entertaining and in some ways enlightening. Thackeray takes every type of character you could imagine, and discusses the stereotypical "snob" of that group. He does this with wit and humor, and swift rapier cuts that expose to the bone in some cases! Groups include military snobs, university snobs, great city snobs, aristocratic snobs, country snobs, dining-out snobs, literary snobs (ow! that one hit a nerve!), and even English snobs on the continent. Several of these groups get more than one chapter because they provide such a rich vein! Interestingly, I found that while Thackeray includes clerical snobs, he provides a very welcome defense of the clergy. While there are caricature's in every grouping of people, Thackeray recognizes that the work done by the clerics is more important and less open to ridicule.