Satirists have always painted themselves as paragons, correcting the foibles of their societies and punishing wrongdoers. By contrast, literary scholars emphasise the mode’s indeterminacy, instability, and aggression, concluding that satire is too unpalatable to persuade, reform, or injure its readers. But what if they’re looking in the wrong places?

This new perspective on satire frames the question of satiric efficacy against three middlebrow writers: P.G. Wodehouse, G.K. Chesterton, and Nancy Mitford. Rather than focusing on aloof modernists or grim dystopian writers, this...