Habits of the House
3 primary works
Book 1
October 1899: all is not well at No. 17 Belgrave Square, London residence of the Earl of Dilberne when not ensconced in his ancestral seat in the Hampshire Hills. It is 7am and someone is pounding on the front door and as neither the butler nor the footman can be found, the poor Earl has been forced to open the front door to a man who shouldn't be using it. Worse, a man he is GBP30,000 in debt to, and, worse still, a man who has come to announce that the Earl's gold mine in South Africa has been destroyed by the Boers.
Before it gets any better for the Earl, its going to get even worse: His wife is going to find out about his ex-mistress - the one he passed on to his son, Walter (who doesn't know her provenance, nor that said mistress is two-timing him with an old rival from Eton). His daughter Rosina, conscientious objector to The Season, member of the Fabian Society (it is well known in Society that her radical opinions exasperated her choleric grandfather to death) is going to report Walter to the police for keeping a brothel. And the energetic Tessa O'Brien, wife of a Chicago Meat Baron, is going to arrive in town looking for a husband for her disgraced daughter Minne.
Meanwhile, below stairs, the servants dust, set fires, scrub floors, dream of freedom from service, steam open letters, take in waifs and strays from the streets, discuss their employer's sex lives, occasionally participate in them and prepare for the 11-course banquet the Earl will be giving for the Prince of Wales on the 7 December...
Before it gets any better for the Earl, its going to get even worse: His wife is going to find out about his ex-mistress - the one he passed on to his son, Walter (who doesn't know her provenance, nor that said mistress is two-timing him with an old rival from Eton). His daughter Rosina, conscientious objector to The Season, member of the Fabian Society (it is well known in Society that her radical opinions exasperated her choleric grandfather to death) is going to report Walter to the police for keeping a brothel. And the energetic Tessa O'Brien, wife of a Chicago Meat Baron, is going to arrive in town looking for a husband for her disgraced daughter Minne.
Meanwhile, below stairs, the servants dust, set fires, scrub floors, dream of freedom from service, steam open letters, take in waifs and strays from the streets, discuss their employer's sex lives, occasionally participate in them and prepare for the 11-course banquet the Earl will be giving for the Prince of Wales on the 7 December...
Book 2
December 1901: With London Society in a frenzy of anticipation for the coronation of the new king, Edward VII, the Earl and Countess of Dilberne are caught up in lavish preparations. Yet Lady Isobel still has ample time to fret, and no wonder with a new heir on the way, an elopement, family tragedy, a runaway niece, and a gaggle of fraudulent spiritualists to contend with...
With her trademark joie de vivre, Fay Weldon once again draws her readers into the lives and loves of the aristocratic Dilberne family, as they embrace not only a new century, but a new generation – a generation with somewhat radical views...
With her trademark joie de vivre, Fay Weldon once again draws her readers into the lives and loves of the aristocratic Dilberne family, as they embrace not only a new century, but a new generation – a generation with somewhat radical views...
Book 3
The year is 1905 and King Edward VII has invited himself and his mistress to a shooting weekend with the Dilbernes. Now Isobel, the Countess, must turn a run-down mansion into a palace fit for a king. Just as well the family fortunes have been restored, but money can't solve everything... not even a kidnapping.
The servants refuse to condone the King's morals; Isobel's daughter, Lady Rosina – now widowed and wealthy – insists on publishing a scandalous book, and the mis-spent pasts of Viscount Arthur and his Irish-American wife Minnie rear up to blacken the family name. When fate deals a hand in the middle of the shooting party, Isobel must consider not only her leading position in Society, but her entire future.
Fay Weldon brings an aristocratic Edwardian household to fabulous, vibrant life in this gorgeously witty tale of manners and morals, commoners and countesses, from one of Britain's best loved authors.
The servants refuse to condone the King's morals; Isobel's daughter, Lady Rosina – now widowed and wealthy – insists on publishing a scandalous book, and the mis-spent pasts of Viscount Arthur and his Irish-American wife Minnie rear up to blacken the family name. When fate deals a hand in the middle of the shooting party, Isobel must consider not only her leading position in Society, but her entire future.
Fay Weldon brings an aristocratic Edwardian household to fabulous, vibrant life in this gorgeously witty tale of manners and morals, commoners and countesses, from one of Britain's best loved authors.