The Book of Snobs is a series of comic sketches on British social life, first appearing in Punch. Thackeray defines a snob as someone who meanly admires mean things, and then surveys the types: the snob royal, the snob clerical, the snob military, the university snob and many others. Each portrait is playful and sharp, mocking rank worship and the habit of judging people by wealth and title. The author includes himself among the guilty. It is short, funny and still recognisable to modern readers.
Quotes
He who meanly admires mean things is a Snob.
Society having ordained certain customs, men are bound to obey the law of society, and conform to its harmless orders.
It is impossible, in our condition of society, not to be sometimes a Snob.
If you WILL fling yourself under the wheels, Juggernaut will go over you, depend upon it;