Noblesse Oblige (book)

Noblesse Oblige

First edition (UK)
Editor	Nancy Mitford
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	Linguistic
Genre	Essays
Published	1956 Hamish Hamilton (UK)
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	114

Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy (1956) is a book that purports to be edited by Nancy Mitford, illustrated by Osbert Lancaster, caricaturist of English manners, and published by Hamish Hamilton. The anthology comprises four brief essays by Nancy Mitford, Alan S. C. Ross, “Strix” and Christopher Sykes, a letter by Evelyn Waugh, and a poem by John Betjeman.

Until Nancy Mitford wrote "The English Aristocracy" in an article published in 1955, England was blissfully unconscious of 'U' ('Upperclass') usage. Her article sparked off a public debate, whose counterblasts are collected in this book, published one year later. Although the subtitle rather drily suggests it as an enquiry into the identifying characteristics of members of the English upper-class, it is really more of a debate, with each essayist entertaining and convincing.

This collection of essays started with Nancy Mitford's article The English Aristocracy, published in 1955 in the magazine Encounter. The expressions 'U' (upper class) and 'non-U' (non-upper class) came to prominence in this article, which sold out the edition of the magazine immediately after publication. The article caused a great deal of light-hearted controversy. The book was published one year later. There is sharp disagreement among the U's who have contributed to this book.

Considered one of the most gifted comic writers of her time, Nancy Mitford said she wrote the article about her peers "In order to demonstrate the upper middle class does not merge imperceptibly into the middle class". She said differences of speech distinguish the members of one social class in England from another. The daughter of a Baron, she was therefore an "Hon" − honourable. Deborah Mitford Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire, the youngest of the famously (and sometimes infamously) unconventional Mitford sisters, wrote a letter to Encounter about the article saying: "... as the co-founder, with my sister Jessica, of the Hons Club, I would like to point out that ... the word Hon meant Hen in Honnish... We were very fond of chickens and on the whole preferred their company to that of human beings ...".