The Feminine Régime: A Book Review

by T.H. Enerdly

Many years ago, probably in the early 1990s, I secured a copy of a book titled The Feminine Regime, authored by Miss Regina Snow, cheaply bound, and incomplete. The book I had was a “teaser,” containing only four or five chapters of a projected 18 chapters. The complete book was eventually published in 1995 by The Wildfire Club. However, much to my disappointment, the publisher ceased operations before I was able to buy a copy.

For the last 20 years or so, I've been looking for a copy of the final edition, or perhaps I should say an inexpensive copy. I discovered long ago that the book is available from antiquarian booksellers but at a price. For example, at the time of this writing, Bookfinder.com lists eight copies for sale, ranging in price from $82.64 to $261.31. These prices are far too dear for my budget. By way of comparison, a copy of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, a book that outsold everything except a Harry Potter book the year of its publication, can be had for $1.46 at Amazon.com. Thus, at the present time, there does seem to be a greater demand for Miss Snow’s book than for Mr. Brown’s book, assuming of course that price is a proxy for demand.

As can be seen from the image of the cover accompanying this blog post, the book seems to be about spanking, a genre for which I have a certain affection. In fact, the books published by The Wildfire Club were advertised in Janus magazine, a popular British spanking publication, no longer published thanks to the Internet.

Recently, quite by accident, I stumbled across a PDF copy of The Feminine Régime at Archive.org. You can get your very own copy at the following link:

https://archive.org/details/TheFeminineRegime

Having finally had the opportunity to read the complete book, I was surprised to discover that The Feminine Régime was as much a lady-to-maid book as a spanking book. For this reason, I suggest that those who frequent this blog consider adding it to their reading list.

Jill (1884) by Amy Dillwyn

The Nerdly, a walking encyclopaedia of all things lady-to-maid, alerted me to this 1884 novel from a Welsh author Amy Dillwyn. Simply called Jill, it is rather unconventional, to put it mildly, being part lesbian romance, part feminist manifesto, and part social critique.

The young heroine, a Victorian gentlewoman from a well-to-do Welsh family, like Dillwyn herself, runs off to London where she disguises herself as a maid. She falls in love with her Mistress, who doesn't know here true identity and sees her as a social inferior. 

Archive.org has a (poorly formatted and partially unreadable) version that you can skim if you are interested, or you can get the proper book at the link above if you are interested. 

Like many such stories, it falls shorts in the wider lady-to-maid context as this is not the author's main focus unfortunately (as a side note, words "uniform" or "apron" are not even mentioned once so that should tell you something), but it does offer a number of interesting observations that I found quite interesting. 

For example, Jill lies about her age to appear more experienced (saying she's 24 instead of 19), fakes reference letters and takes hairdressing classes so that she can find herself a good place. Of course, none of these should surprise anyone who know anything about Victorian maids or read In Cap and Apron, not to mention Her Most Remarkable Performance!

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Caption: Summer Rental.

Translated by T. H. Enerdly

This is a caption I found years ago on a now defunct French Yahoo Group. I referred to it in the comments section of the recent Olivia Holt posting and thought that at least some readers might like seeing it. It helps to know that in France, everyone with the means takes their vacation in August.

T. H. Enerdly

***

Hermine knows the house, the one in which she serves as a maid, like the back of her hand. After all, it's hers.

During summer vacation season, she lists it with a rental agency, the rental fee including the wages of a live-in maid. With the tacit consent of the rental agency, Hermine plays the role of the maid, thus putting her at the service of the renters. In this way, she could be certain that she was no the longer the mistress of the house but the one who wore the uniform of a maid.

Unexpectedly, her most recent renters asked her if she wanted to leave her “dump” for Paris.

“It's so difficult to find good help!”

Will Hermine’s summertime lark become permanent? Will become the servant of a couple of musicians and their 16-year-old daughter? Will she quit her job as a pharmacist to become a maid? And if she does, what will she say to her coworkers? And what will she say to her maid when the latter returns from her vacation?

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Duchesses Becoming Maids: A Short Essay

By T. H. Enerdly

In 1889, Crown Prince of Austria Rudolph committed suicide together with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, an event known as the Mayerling incident, Mayerling being the Imperial hunting Lodge, the scene of the incident.

A few years ago, while reading an account of this incident in the book A Nervous Splendor by Frederick Morton, I chanced upon the following interesting observation about the Baroness:

“She knew it wouldn't do to arrive at costume balls as a Bourbon princess (accountants' wives were known to do that). Instead she’d come as a saucy chambermaid (the favorite disguise of duchesses).”

If one occasionally writes lady-to-maid stories as I do, one's interest cannot help but be piqued by a quote such as the one above. I immediately began researching duchesses who liked to wear chambermaid costumes…but found nothing. Every year or so since I first read the quote, I've tried to find more information, but have been disappointed every time.

Recently, I've tried a different approach. I decided to search for an image of a duchess wearing a chambermaid costume. Much to my delight, I found such an image on Pinterest, the one accompanying this essay. The Pinterest posting did not contain much information: Merely a couple of sentences that identified the subject as Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna and noted that she was wearing a masquerade costume, probably “chambermaid.”

My first thought, when viewing the image, was that it must be difficult to dance a waltz while holding a lit candlestick. But, with the image, I now more or less had confirmation that duchesses sometimes wore chambermaid outfits to costume balls. This was a place where I could start some actual research.

There is an article about Elena in the Wikipedia. She is described as having had a “grand manner” and a rather nasty temper, which, by the way, are not ideal character traits, either for a unmarried Grand Duchess or a maid. She is reputed to have had an offer of marriage, later withdrawn, from Archduke Ferdinand, the fellow whose assassination sparked World War I, an event some historians believe was a knock-on effect set in motion by the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolph. Failure to marry the Archduke probably was wonderful for Elena’s longevity, given that the man who assassinated Ferdinand also killed the latter’s wife. Elena ended up marrying Prince Nicholas of Greece, her only suitor, presumably because other potential suitors were unenthusiastic about her “grand manner” and temper.

Story: Amorous Hierarchy

This is a very loose translation of a French story that appeared as an article on a now defunct Yahoo Group together with a couple of tweaks I added to the story. Even though the story appeared as an article, in terms of brevity, it's very similar to a caption and could have very well been done as a caption rather than an article. I think it's an interesting twist on the traditional lady-to-maid story.

T. H. Enerdly

By Hanna, Femme de Chambre

Fabienne and Giselle were two girlfriends in training as chambermaids at a hotel school. The photo was taken during their internship at a grand hôtel in Geneva a little more than six months ago.

At that time, they were so much in love that one couldn't conceive of them breaking up...Don't they look like a pair of Siamese cats?...However, Fabienne, the blonde, decided not to continue her internship, leaving her girlfriend Giselle in turmoil.

What happened was the following: On a whim, Fabienne checked the help wanted notices for the hotel and discovered that the position of assistant to the executive secretary was vacant. She applied and was hired to fill the position, leaving Giselle to continue training as a maid.

Fabienne found her new position agreeable. Especially when, from the comfort of her office, she would summon Giselle to serve her a cup of coffee. They would then play a subtle lovers' game. For example, Fabienne would tenderly reprimand Giselle for some wrinkles in her uniform. Fabienne no longer wore the white apron, and that changed everything between them.

Even at night, when they played their lovers games, it was Giselle that cleaned their studio apartment and did the ironing. Fabienne considered asking her companion to don the white apron when in her presence, to call her "madame" and "mistress," and to sleep in the rooms reserved for the chambermaids at the hotel, thus allowing Fabienne to enjoy the apartment all to herself.

Since the end of the internship, Fabienne has worked upstairs in the executive suite, and Giselle has worked downstairs as a chambermaid. One of Giselle's duties was to act as the waitress at the dinner party to celebrate Fabienne's promotion.

Tomorrow, confident that she now has the measure of Giselle, Fabienne will ask Giselle to serve as the maid at Fabienne's new apartment, to don the white apron, to call Fabienne "madame" and "mistress," and to do the housework. But until then, it's out of the question for them to share a bed, even though it's the same bed they shared as lovers.

Story: The Garden of Eden

(The story is loosely based on the caption Katrin and Mimi.) 

by Angela Uriel

as told to T. H. Enerdly

Paradise

Katrin von Loth had started her own business eight years ago, a one-woman consultancy business based on offering seminars on how to apply the principles of sexual domination to workplace success and increased sales. In other words, how to apply the principles of BDSM to business problems.

Her business had been hugely successful for the past several years. However, for reasons Katrin hadn't yet fathomed, her business had recently developed serious financial problems. It was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, creating a mountain of problems for Katrin, each problem demanding Katrin's undivided attention, each problem adding to the stress Katrin was experiencing.

But this wasn't the first time Katrin’s business had developed such problems, and it probably wouldn't be the last. She had always wrestled her problems into submission before, and she was confident that she could do it again. Sometimes, when worrying about her problems, Katrin would watch her maid, Mimi, as the latter went about her duties. Katrin envied Mimi because she always seemed to be in a good mood, never showing any stress, unlike Katrin. Submission to a Mistress seemed to suit Mimi, even to a strict Mistress like Katrin. However, when particularly stressed out, Katrin would daydream about pursuing a career in domestic service and enjoying a stress-free life like Mimi’s.

Caption: Katrin and Mimi

Here's another German-language caption from the now defunct Yahoo group. T.H. Enerdly kindly provided the translation and is currently working on a long story inspired by it that will be posted in this blog in coming days. However, unlike the caption, the story will not feature magic. 

By tomblach

Her firm was in serious financial difficulty, the one that Katrin von Loth had created eight years ago. Katrin had been brooding for months over a mountain of problems. The arrogant high society lady looked enviously at her maid of all work.

Caption: Anna Katarina

By derdurchdiezeitreisende [the time traveler]

Translated by T. H. Enerdly

Preface

This caption originally appeared in a now defunct German Yahoo group. It appeals to me for two reasons: it is a rather unusual example of a Lady-to-Maid story, an I think it could be re-written as a full length story.

I’m told that there are there are two types of translations:

• Faithful translations that are true to the source language, German in this case, or
• Idiomatic translations that read as if originally written by a native speaker of the target language, English in this case.

A translation can be one or the other, but not both. My translation is idiomatic.

The Original Caption

Translation:

Story: Cinderella, Humble, Haughty Child

This short story was recommended to me by T.H. Enerdly. It comes from a 1999 book called "Inverted Odysseys" (affiliate link), which, among other things, includes this "pervered" version of Cinderella written by the Surrealist artist and photographer Claude Cahun.

Strictly, this is not a lady2maid story, but comes pretty close, suggesting themes of self-imposed downgrade. I hope it's to your liking.

“She let fall one of her glass slippers,

which the Prince carefully picked up.”

Perrault

My father remarried and I was very happy about it all. I’d always dreamed of having a stepmother. But heaven overwhelmed me, giving me two sisters by marriage. They were deliciously cruel. I especially loved the elder, who despised me delightfully: When she saw me always sitting in the cinders by the fireplace, whose warmth penetrated me with delight (sometimes even burning me), did her dear familiar voice not call me Kitchenella? Never was a word so sweet to my ears.

Sadly, they were pretty girls, marriageable maidens; they left us soon, leaving me with my parents, who, devoted to one another, regarded the world with a drunkard’s tenderness—and included me in their superb universal indifference. I will do anything to avoid a marriage like that . . . But how would I do it? I with my loving nature, and so submissive? . . .

Another Library Page Update

Thanks to a number of blog readers that suggested stories I should add to my library after my previous update post a month ago, I now have quite a few new items I am happy to link. They are of varying size and quality, but all deal with the subject of social drop and degradation and feature maids.

One recent lady-to-maid story that I really liked was published by Tcheser in his blog. It's called Hidden Shame an deals with themes of "makeunder" and role reversal as the protagonist goes from an arrogant beauty to a plain housekeeper to her former friend.

A reader pointed me to Akiko's Bodyswap Captions blog. One of the recurrent themes there is transformation into a maid. While anime is typically not my cup of tea, some of the content is pretty interesting for a lady-to-maid afficionado. Here is a recent example of the type of captions found there - Was I tricked?

Another reader reminded me of a lesbian domination video made a while back about a maid trading places with her mistress. Looks interesting. You can find it here.

Story: Doeville Halloween Ghost Train

By T. H. Enerdly

Part 1

Introduction

Barry Knight, editor of the "Daily Granite," hung up the phone. 
He had been asked for some help by a friend.  Barry pondered 
the request for several minutes before asking his secretary 
to fetch Claire, a cub reporter for the newspaper and ideal 
for the assignment Barry had in mind.

After a few minutes, Claire stuck her head into Barry's office 
and said, "What's up, chief?"

"Great Kaiser's ghost, don't call me chief, girl."

"Don't call me girl, chief."

"Too much sass by far," thought Barry.  "She'll be more respectful 
when she returns from her next assignment."

"Have a seat, gir..., Claire."

After Claire sat down, Barry continued, "Have you ever heard the 
legend of the Doeville Halloween ghost train?"

Story: Transformation of a Middle-Class Woman

by Conchita
(Translated by The Nerdly and edited by C. Lakewood)

Part 1

Translator's Preface:

This is a translation from the French of a story entitled
"Transformation d'une Bourgeoise," which was uploaded to the
files section of the now-extinct Yahoo Group "Arrogant Women
Embarrassed" in the fall of 2004.  As far as I can determine,
the story was first posted to a French site that specialized
in a fetish for nylon smocks (which are somewhat similar to lab
coats and are typically worn by working women, such as cleaning
ladies).  The story's primary focus is on this type of clothing. 
I am not a devotee of this fetish, but do hope the translation
does justice to this aspect of the story.  There is also a
secondary focus on humiliation and D/s, which is of more
interest to me, and, I suspect, to the members of our group.

The story exists in several variants.  I uploaded one such
variant in English to the "Arrogant Women Embarrassed" group. 
Subsequently, I noticed that, to me, the French version is
more interesting than the English version.  For this reason,
I undertook to provide the members of the group with a new
translation.

Story: Becoming a Maid

by Annette

Translated by The Nerdly, edited by C. Lakewood

Part 1

Miriam, a friend of mine, remarked one day during a luncheon,
"There are two ways of wearing a black dress: with a pearl
necklace or with a white apron."

The bon mot piqued my curiosity, so much so that the next time
I was at the Samaritaine department store, I bought a waitress's
white apron.  When I got home, I tested Miriam's theory in front
of a mirror.  First, I put on a pearl necklace and regarded my
overall image.  Then I exchanged the pearls around my neck for
an apron around my waist.  The dress with an apron was a
completely different garment than it had been with the necklace.

What if I actually WERE a maid?  Me...become a maid?  But how?  For
whom?  And, above all, WHY?  It was, of course, a truly mad idea,
yet a strangely pleasurable feeling crept over me.

I picked up the telephone and dialed a familiar number.  "Miriam?"

Story: The Bottle of Oil

By Sergio (domedeus2002)

Translated from the Italian by The Nerdly


"Damn, damn, damn!" muttered Valerie to no one in particular.  Once again, a bottle of oil had slid through her fingers and shattered on the floor.  She sank to her knees and began collecting the shards of glass, all the while cursing her clumsiness.  She knew that her mistress would not be pleased when she learned about this latest incident.  She had emphasized that Valerie was to be careful with the bottle, and now....  No, her mistress would not be at all happy to learn about her carelessness.

The last time Valerie had dropped a bottle of oil, the Signora had whipped her without mercy, and she still remembered it vividly. She had wept, had screamed, had begged at the top of her lungs for her mistress to show mercy and stop beating her, but to no avail. The punishment had continued unabated until Valerie had felt wetness on her thighs, and then she had to kiss her mistress's hand in the prescribed fashion, lick the whip clean, put it back where it belonged, and, finally, thank her mistress for the discipline.

Caption: No Going Back

I have a large collection of German-language lady-to-maid captions of varying quality, salvaged from a now defunct yahoo group. This is one of a better ones that fits nicely with a lot of the themes in this blog. The free translation is courtesy of T.H.Enerdly.

Translation:

No Going Back

by Derdurchdiezeitreisende (The Time Traveller)

“You don’t look too happy, Madame. Has he left you too?” Rosa couldn’t deny that she felt a sense of schadenfreude about Heather’s streak of bad luck.

“Rosa, please help me. There’s nothing more I can do. What am I doing wrong?” After betting everything on her relationship, Heather knew that she had fallen into a hole so deep that there was no hope of climbing out by herself.

“What more could I do to help you, Madame? I’m your maid: It’s my job to obey your orders. I do your laundry and clean your home, I serve your guests, and when Madame rings the bell, I’m AT YOUR SERVICE.”

“That’s not what I mean, Rosa. I know that you’re a hard-working maid, the best I’ve ever had. But I need a friend to help me cope with my life as well as you seem to cope with yours.” Imploringly, Heather looked into the eyes of her maid. Rosa’s eyes were cold and arrogant. After a few moments, Heather lowered hers to the floor. At this moment, Heather knew how Rosa could help. “Rosa, I’d like to change places with you. How would you like to be the Madame? I’d be your maid.”

Rosa laughed, “Madame, you can’t be serious. I may be your servant, but I’m not your plaything. What would happen? The fine lady plays at being a domestic servant for a while, then, when she’s had enough, everything returns to normal? No, Madame, if you want to be my maid, there won’t be any going back. You should give me all of your property, or even better, get hopelessly into debt.” Rosa laughed again, for she knew that Heather was about to give in. “Heather, honey, a maid’s uniform fits so much better when there’s no going back.”

Story: Time and Tide

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

How was your day, fallen aristocratic lady?

One of my favorite authors, T.H. Enerdly, pointed me to an interesting account that, while not exactly a lady-to-maid story, is nonetheless very interesting. While we wait for updates of Molly, China story, as well as a new piece from Jackie J, here is a short real life downgrade tale of an aristocratic lady that has lost the wealth and the status that used to go with her title:

Bourgeois, as usual. Boring and tiring. Each morning when I wake up to go to work I can’t help cursing my own fate. I still can’t believe it: How did I get to this point? My family dates back to the 13th-century French Angevin kings’ invasion of Sicily but has devoured its entire fortune. I was left with nothing as heredity, just a pair of wooden chairs. The only sign of nobility is the blue blood running in my veins.

Not much, eh? And my aristocratic title? A piece of paper. When I turned 24, my earl dad looked me straight in the eye and told me I had to find a job. I am the first of my lineage to work for a living, and it’s not even great work. I occasionally teach Italian at a local high school. Salary? Not even $1,000 per month..

But what I can’t stand is what I do each day and what my mother, let alone my grandmother or great-grandmother, would have never lowered down to: household chores. Cleaning the house, buying groceries, getting the washing machine going, cooking twice a day, ironing — oh, I hate that! Paying bills and running a household is just not part of my DNA.

Story: How to Find a Maid

By T. H. Enerdly 

Author’s Note

This story is a prequel to “Interview With Madame Nguyen,” a story that appears elsewhere in this blog. It is helpful but not essential to have read that story before reading this one. A portion of this story is in the form of an interview, inspired by a file, written in French, found in a now moribund Yahoo Group, and probably authored by someone who styles herself as “Hanna, femme de chambre.” My translation is quite free and has been altered somewhat to fit the needs of the story.

Prologue

Deep within every woman’s unconscious, a battle rages, a battle between her inner mistress and her inner slave, a battle that decides who she will become: the mistress who commands or the slave who obeys.

My inner Mistress won my battle. Unfortunately, I don’t have any slaves to command—after all, slavery is frowned upon these days—but I have the next best thing: a maid. And make no mistake about it, a maid is a latter-day slave. Consider what Célestine—the maid in Octave Mirbeau’s novel, “The Diary of a Chambermaid”—proclaims:

“They pretend that there is no more slavery. Oh! what nonsense? And what are domestics, then, if not slaves? Slaves in fact, with all that slavery involves of moral vileness, inevitable corruption, and hate-engendering rebellion.”

Story: Interview With Madame Nguyen

By Hanna A____, freelance journalist
Translated and embellished by T. H. Enerdly

Translator’s Note

This story, in the form of an interview, was inspired by a file, written in French in the first decade of the 21st century, found in a now moribund Yahoo Group, and probably authored by someone who styles herself as “Hanna, femme de chambre.” My translation is quite free and has been “embellished” to give the story more of a Mistress-to-maid flavor.

Introduction

My name is Hanna A____, I’m a freelance journalist, and I’m planning on writing a story about Madame Nguyen, a book editor who has a hobby of training professional women as actual maids, of letting these women experience the reality of their fantasies, of giving them a taste of humiliation, as I found out to my intense embarrassment. She’s currently training a 43 year-old woman, a former executive secretary, as a maidservant. After a long telephone conversation, during which the 32 year-old Mme. Nguyen asked me so many questions that I felt as if I were being interviewed instead of her, she granted me an interview with her at her duplex in the XIII arrondissement of Paris.

In case it’s not clear to the reader, I must point out that Mme. Nguyen is a Mistress in the BDSM sense of the word.

During the interview, we discussed her complex approach to training a maid. She emphasized that she was only speaking for herself and not for other Mistresses. Nevertheless, her methods are quite instructive. She likes to recruit professional women who have a secret desire to experience servitude and offers them the opportunity to moonlight as maids while still living their “civilian” lives, or so it seems at first.

Mme. Nguyen lives near the Place d’Italie, on the Avenue de Choisy, in one of those hidden places in the Capital, at the back of a courtyard that leads to a former workshop that has been converted into a duplex. The location is quiet, but full of life, a place where the few remaining artisans sometimes cross paths with Rembrandt wannabes.

At her residence, Mme. Nguyen greeted me in traditional Chinese dress, the cheongsam. The interview took place on the first floor of her duplex in the living room, a large open space with simple furniture, lending a “Zen” feel to the room.

The transcript of my interview with Mme. Nguyen appears in the next section.

Story: Like Mother, Like Daughter

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER

An epistolary tale by The Nerdly,  based on three vignettes in French by Hanna, femme de chambre

Dear Hanna,

You asked in your last letter how I came to be Gabrielle's  full-time maid. I hope this will answer your question.

Gabrielle and I were roommates at college, where we played D/s  games together. We especially liked to play the game of mistress and maid. Gabrielle was always the mistress, and I, always the  maid. Since we were impoverished college students, my maid's uniform was blue jeans with a white tee shirt, and Gabrielle's mistress clothing was the same.

As you know, Gabrielle moved to Strasbourg after college to take a position with the École Nationale d'Administration, the ENA. I accepted a junior management position with a firm in Paris. Having  so enjoyed the D/s games we had played in college, we agreed to continue them after graduation. To play the game, I travelled to  Strasbourg on the weekends to serve as Gabrielle's maid. She  expected me to wear a proper maid's uniform and carry a serving tray, and also to act as a chambermaid and iron her clothes -- in other words, to serve as her maid of all work. We played this game for two years. There were occasional aggravations, but I didn't mind. I was always able to juggle my two lives so that I  met the high expectations of both Gabrielle and my boss at my "real" job.