The Diary of a Chambermaid

The Diary of a Chambermaid is an English translation of Octave Mirbeau’s decadent novel, Le Journal d’une femme de chambre, which was first published in France in 1900. It is a caustic but extremely amusing and often salacious exposé of domestic service. In her diary, Célestine, an elegant and enigmatic chambermaid, records her experience of service in various bourgeois and upper-class households. Her diary entries reveal the hypocrisy, vices, perversions, and pretensions of her employers and fellow domestics. They also reveal her moral shortcomings. Mirbeau’s novel refutes the exploitation of domestics, equating domestic service with slavery.