This is a curious, satirical set of essays and musings written by Jonathan Swift in 1745, of Jonathan Swift fame.
Here’s an odd wording from the author’s bio: “Written in the author’s final years of sanity…”
And on that charming note!
So what the book looks like, and this depends largely on your edition, is a few longish pieces and several smallish ones. The result comes across as a kind of writing that loses steam over time, and the short pieces do not tend to represent a sharper, more concise wording or wit. The longish pieces stand as printed directions for servants to use in adhering to the rules and orders of maintaining a house. But a few earnest sounding ones quickly give way to clearly satirical ones. It’s entirely written in the second person as a set of commands, and each rules is presented in an entirely dry tone with the undercutting material coming afterward, but without giving up any of the false confidence and authority presented.
What is up for question, at least as I read it: is the satire targeting the servants and servant class, or the aristocracy? And I think the answer is yes. I have to imagine your original position in reading this document entirely shapes how you consider this question. I can imagine someone used to being served and simply seeing it as the way of the world as reading this, giving ironic directions to servants and carefully instructing them on how to misbehave and be lazy would see this as showing them up. But if you are a servant, and you recognize your own behavior in this book, you probably recognize the utter absurdity of the rules of order being undercut.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Directions-Servants-Hesperus-Classics-Jonathan/dp/1843910624)