2022 Catch-up Review: The Admirable Crichton

The Admirable Crichton by J.M. Barrie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The title character is a butler in the household of an English Earl. He is the epitome of butler-hood and, very 'properly', believes in the hierarchy of society even into the servants' quarters of the Earl's estate. He serves his superiors with sincerity and aplomb. But Mary, the oldest daughter of the household, is keen and sharp, and fears that Crichton's beliefs might be foreboding, for, as he keeps saying, 'nature' brings about class in a society. And the rest of this play takes us through the unfolding of how this belief works. We are introduced to role-reversals and are given much food for thought through all the humour in this play. 

I first read this play back in senior high school and enjoyed it then, but with a recent re-read I found that so much I did not understand back as a teenager, makes so much more sense now -- and I enjoyed it again!

Definitely worth a read!