The view in the mirror: The satire of E. M. Delafield

E. M. Delafield, British author, journalist, and playwright, uses satire to express impatience with triviality and the prevailing belief that a woman's life is no more than luncheon parties. By taking a comic view of life, Delafield holds a mirror to society, reflecting the society back at itself. She combines the spheres of private and public life and portrays the self as a wanderer through the comedy that is the human condition. Her appeal comes from an ability to show, with keen wit, that most people trudge through their daily grind with little notable excitement. Even when she mocks them, she makes people feel that theirs is not a wholly useless existence. As a satirist, she is most successful when her readers look into her mirror, but do not know that they are looking at themselves.