As a libertarian writer, Octave Mirbeau gives voice to a maidservant, Célestine: that is already subversive in itself.
Through her eyes, which perceive the world through keyholes, he shows us the foul-smelling hidden sides of high society, the ‘moral bumps’ of the dominating classes, and the turpitudes of the bourgeois society that he assails.
Mirbeau’s story undresses the members of high society of their superficial probity, revealing them in the undergarments of their moral flaws: their hypocrisy and perversions.

Ending up in a Norman town at the home of the Lanlaires, with their grotesque family name, who owe their unjustifiable wealth to their respective ‘honourable’ parents’ swindlings, she evokes, as she recalls her memories, all the jobs that she has done for years in the swankiest households, and draws a conclusion that the reader is invited to make his own: «However vile the riff-raff may be, they are never as vile as decent people.» («
 Si infâmes que soient les canailles, ils ne le sont jamais autant que les honnêtes gens.
 »)
Octave Mirbeau denounces domestic service as a modern form of slavery.
However, he offers no sentimentalised image of the underclass, as servants exploited by their masters are ideologically alienated themselves: « D’être domestique, on a ça dans le sang... ».

With its fractured exposition, its temporal dislocations, its clashing styles, and varying forms, Mirbeau’s novel breaks with the conventions of the realistic novel and relinquishes all claims to documentary objectivity and narrative linearity.
As a libertarian writer, Octave Mirbeau gives voice to a maidservant, Célestine: that is already subversive in itself. Through her eyes, which perceive the world through keyholes, he shows us the foul-smelling hidden sides of high society, the ‘moral bumps’ of the dominating classes, and the turpitudes of the bourgeois society that he assails. Mirbeau’s story undresses the members of high society of their superficial probity, revealing them in the undergarments of their moral flaws: their hypocrisy and perversions.
Ending up in a Norman town at the home of the Lanlaires, with their grotesque family name, who owe their unjustifiable wealth to their respective ‘honourable’ parents’ swindlings, she evokes, as she recalls her memories, all the jobs that she has done for years in the swankiest households, and draws a conclusion that the reader is invited to make his own: «However vile the riff-raff may be, they are never as vile as decent people.» (« Si infâmes que soient les canailles, ils ne le sont jamais autant que les honnêtes gens. »)
Octave Mirbeau denounces domestic service as a modern form of slavery. However, he offers no sentimentalised image of the underclass, as servants exploited by their masters are ideologically alienated themselves: « D’être domestique, on a ça dans le sang... ».
With its fractured exposition, its temporal dislocations, its clashing styles, and varying forms, Mirbeau’s novel breaks with the conventions of the realistic novel and relinquishes all claims to documentary objectivity and narrative linearity.
The Diary of a Chambermaid (novel)