Snarky study of 1970's nobility. ( )

Six-word review: I am not like other men.

Extended review:

For an American who reads as much British literature as I do and watches as many British dramas, I am very late in coming to a working grasp of the titled classes. Not only could I not have recited the hierarchy of hereditary peers from duke to baron but I had very little understanding of their role in the social system and its meaning to the history and present structure of society in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Simon Winchester's 1981 book has filled that yawning gap in my education. No matter that it is thirty years out of date, that many of the title holders and even the titles themselves will be gone by now, and that forecast effects of then-recent changes in tax laws and other reforms will already have played out, for good or ill. If I want to learn which ancient titles have gone extinct for want of an heir in the past three decades or what the Capital Transfer Tax has done to landholdings in England, I'm sure the Internet will tell me. Meanwhile, the same monarch sits on the throne, the same velvet-and-ermine robes and prescribed coronets wait in storage for the obligatory guests at the next coronation, and the House of Lords remains the only governmental body in the world in which membership can be conferred by right of birth.

The author may have told me more than I ever wanted to know about the lifestyle of the Earl of Kintore or the misdeeds of Lord Lucan, the unfathomably vast acreages held (then, if not now) by hereditary aristocrats, and the trend toward ennobling as life peers prominent members of the merchant classes and other distinguished figures; but no one forced me to keep reading. However little of the exhaustive detail I retain, I have gained a broad sense of a character-defining institution of what is in many ways our parent nation and yet has no counterpart in our culture. Winchester shows the drawbacks of privilege alongside its many blessings and effectively counters any vestiges of title envy that some of us might secretly harbor. ( )

An eye opening and entertaining read that provides rich perspective on the Peerage of Britain. It debunks myths, positive and negative, and Winchester's wry, witty style makes for great entertainment. It is altogether rather dated -- but I suppose in theory nothing will have changed much in institutions that have stood for a thousand or so years. ( )

A interesting look at the peerage. Wholly irrelevant today (my copy was published in 1982), but still very interesting. ( )