As traditional social hierarchies fall away, ever steeper levels of economic inequality and the entrenchment of new class distinctions lend a new glamor to the idea of aristocracy: witness the worldwide popularity of Downton Abbey, or the seemingly insatiable public fascination with the private lives of the British royal family. This collection of new essays investigates the enduring attraction to the icon of the aristocrat and the spectacle of aristocratic society. It traces the ambivalent reactions the aristocracy provokes and the needs (political, ideological, psychological, and otherwise) it caters to in modern times when the economic power of the landed classes have been eroded and their political role curtailed. In this interdisciplinary collection, aristocracy is considered from multiple viewpoints, including British and American literature, European history and politics, cultural studies, linguistics, visual arts, music, and media studies.

As traditional social hierarchies fall away, ever steeper levels of economic inequality and the entrenchment of new class distinctions lend a new glamor to the idea of aristocracy: witness the worldwide popularity of Downton Abbey, or the seemingly insatiable public fascination with the private lives of the British royal family. This collection of new essays investigates the enduring attraction to the icon of the aristocrat and the spectacle of aristocratic society. It traces the ambivalent reactions the aristocracy provokes and the needs (political, ideological, psychological, and otherwise) it caters to in modern times when the economic power of the landed classes have been eroded and their political role curtailed. In this interdisciplinary collection, aristocracy is considered from multiple viewpoints, including British and American literature, European history and politics, cultural studies, linguistics, visual arts, music, and media studies.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Culture in Early Modern England is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of current research on popular culture in the early modern era. For the first time a detailed yet wide-ranging consideration of the breadth and scope of early modern popular culture in England is collected in one volume, highlighting the interplay of 'low' and 'high' modes of cultural production (while also questioning the validity of such terminology). The authors examine how popular culture impacted upon people's everyday lives during the period, helping to define how individuals and groups experienced the world. Issues as disparate as popular reading cultures, games, food and drink, time, textiles, religious belief and superstition, and the function of festivals and rituals are discussed. This research companion will be an essential resource for scholars and students of early modern history and culture.

This stunning book presents the intriguing stories and celebrated histories of some of the leading families of Great Britain and Ireland and the opulent residences that have defined their heritages. The history of England is inextricably linked with the stories of its leading aristocratic dynasties and the great seats they have occupied for centuries. As the current owners speak of the critical roles their ancestors have played in the nation, they bring history alive. All of these houses have survived great wars, economic upheavals, and, at times, scandal. Filled with stunning photography, this book is a remarkably intimate and lively look inside some of Britain’s stateliest houses, with the modern-day aristocrats who live in them and keep them going in high style. This book presents a tour of some of England’s finest residences, with many of the interiors shown here for the first time. It includes Blenheim Palace—seven acres under one roof, eclipsing the splendor of any of the British royal family’s residences—property of the Dukes of Marlborough; the exquisite Old Vicarage in Derbyshire, last residence of the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (née Deborah Mitford); Haddon Hall, a vast crenellated 900-year-old manor house belonging to the Dukes of Rutland that has been called the most romantic house in England; and the island paradises on Mustique and St. Lucia of the 3rd Baron Glenconner. This book is perfect for history buffs and lovers of traditional interior design and English country life.

Examines the works of Marie Corelli, Henry James, H.G. Wells, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and other writers to demonstrate the centrality of aristocracy in late Victorian and early-20th-century literary culture.

Seminar paper from the year 1998 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2.0 (B), University of Osnabr ck (Anglistics), 14 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In his personal comment 'On Britain' Ralf Dahrendorf detected the continuation of a powerful, self-confident and easily identifiable upper class lacked by other modern countries like Germany or France and the rather persistent survival of its old values as one of the reasons for the peculiar nature of the inequality of the British society. He called Britain a 'society of fine distinctions' which as well as economic inequalities between the occupational layers are responsible for the deep class segregation most of Britain's population are still aware of. Andrew Adonis and Stephen Pollard take the view that, even though classes themselves have changed and social mobility is extending, the British class system separates people to the same extent as it did half a century ago. What does this class system look like? The simplest but still applicable model divides Britain into three broad classes - the working, the middle and the upper class each of which can be determined by the occupational positions of its representatives, their education, status, housing, manners and even by the language they speak. Dahrendorf compared it with a layer cake - the dough at the bottom, the chocolate on top and in between a relatively broad jam layer - and stresses the clear dividing lines which separate them and which are characteristic for Britain's society. Who do the upper classes consist of today and to which degree does the old upper class, i.e. the aristocracy, form the chocolate icing of Dahrendorf's cake? How has its position in the society, its influence and its relevance changed? Can one argue that the British aristocracy managed to survive as a clearly defined class and what role do such institutions like public schools and the House of Lords