Habits of the House - Fay Weldon (Head of Zeus)
Hardback ● £14.99 ● 9781908800046 ● History
This is a welcome treat, a historical novel from the arch,
witty and perceptive Fay Weldon. Her novels
are always eagerly anticipated, and I found this one very entertaining. My only
gripe is that as part one of three I have to wait to read more. Habits
of the House is set across a few weeks at the end of 1899. The new century
looms for the landed aristocracy, who can feel their grip on society loosening. A new modern world is threatening to break
free, with its socialist ideals, Fabians, rational dress, Free Love and
suffragists. Land is no longer the
secure income of yesteryear, and new opportunities must be sought to bolster
one’s family status and fortune.
This is the case for the Dilberne family. His Lordship, not the most prudent of men, is
in a financial hole. The trouble with
the Boers has put paid to his promising mining venture, so it’s all down to the
children now. An advantageous marriage
would be just the thing. A pity that
neither of his children seems particularly inclined to help out. Perhaps his son, Arthur, can be persuaded to
consider the charming Minnie O’Brien. She may have a past, be no better than she ought to be and from America,
but she stands to inherit a fortune. It
may be a struggle to distract Arthur from his car or his mistress Flora though. His sister Rosina is a New Woman. Her interests lie in meetings to raise social
consciousness, not marriage. It is
fortunate that Lord and Lady Dilberne’s relationship is rock solid. Together they can overcome these little
difficulties. Let’s hope there is
nothing in, say, His Lordship’s past to destabilise the couple.
The story opens with a splendid vignette of old and new
worlds colliding. Early one morning,
well before the decent hour for visiting, a young man rushes up to the door of
the Dilberne’s London residence and knocks repeatedly. He is rather fashionably dressed, not quite
suitable for the front steps. A little
too well dressed for the tradesman’s entrance. The servants are in disarray; no one is suitably attired for answering
the front door at this hour. His
Lordship cannot, in all decency go himself. Whatever would the staff think?
So, the visitor sits and waits, on the steps, disgruntled and
affronted. Inside the house tradition
has stymied them all; there is no appropriate response to this breach of
etiquette. Outside sits Mr Baum, trying
to get on in the world with his hard work and talent, and deliver a most
important message. The ensuing chapters
as Baum waits set us up nicely for the tensions and strains Weldon examines.
Periods of change and uncertainty always make for a good
story. There is a hint of Upstairs,
Downstairs about it, fittingly as Weldon wrote the first TV episode. We have the story from both viewpoints. It is interesting to read trademark Weldon, giving
us oppressive patriarchy in a society where it was so much more politically
pronounced than now. Rosina, in her way,
fights against the traditional woman’s place. I want to tell her it will get better; just not as much as she might
hope. Flora, Arthur’s mistress, is
written as a grasping little whore. At
first glance I found her a bit of a cliché, but despite allowing her body to be
used and abused by these upper class cads, they never get the better of her
mind. All the women are smarter and more
adaptable than their menfolk. Not that
the chaps are without hope, they just need to catch up and quickly. It’s almost 1900 and a new world is dawning.
Sarah our guest reviewer is a
bookseller working towards her PhD:
Bookshops have always been my
natural habitat. Since 1995 Waterstones have kindly allowed me to work as a
Bookseller for them. Over the last ten years I have combined my life as a
Bookseller with studying at Birkbeck, where I took a History Degree then a
Master's. I am currently working towards a PhD.
