Exclusive interview with author Fay Weldon and a review of her new novel about the aristocracy and their servants
Rating: Three Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I was once involved with a TV series called Upstairs-Downstairs, for which I wrote the pilot episode back in 1972,” says Habits of the House author Fay Weldon. “I wanted to go back into that period. I know a lot about the world of masters and servants, my grandmother being born into the literary high life of the late nineteenth century, my mother being a servant to a wealthy household in the 1940s, and myself living in a basement as the housekeeper’s daughter. So the world of the wealthy at the turn of the century, with all the associated fun with fashion and fabrics and jewels and menus, and the contrast with the hard lives of their servants, seemed to me a very rich seam to explore.”
Habits of the House is an aristocratic society novel like Downton Abbey, but set in London, and vividly captures the flavour of the era. It’s clear why the characters do what they do, even if you may not agree with their reasons. At times the characters are unlikable, but their loyalty is commendable. You’ll want to see what they do next.
There are more details here about the lives of the servants than a typical novel about the aristocracy. The plot could have been more compelling had it had held more surprises or been solely about the servants and how they cope. The dialog tends to be matter of fact, not as witty as on television, which was the style of the times. The book explores the money problems the upper class had. The book is set at the end of the Victoria’s reign, when times are changing.
The story centers on the House of Dilberne. The Earl has made some bad decisions with the family’s money, with gambling and bad investments. The earl wants his children to marry for money, as he did. His marriage to Isobel, the daughter of a wealthy coal baron, saved his family. Isobel is charged with finding a wealthy woman for their son Arthur.
“Downton Abbey was a mere gleam in the BBC’s eyes when I started writing Habits of the House,” says Weldon. “It was about time, I thought, that I wrote a simple romance, and gave up the kind of didactic meta-novel I have lately taken to writing. Why not, for once, have a happy end?”
Weldon spent a lot of time on the Internet looking for books on all aspects of the period that interested her. She also found material in her own emotional history.
Weldon has written for film, TV, stage and radio dramas, short stories, novellas, operas, and non-fiction articles and reviews. She wrote The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, adapted into the film She Devil starring Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr. Weldon has been a runner-up for the Booker Prize, has a CBE from the Queen for Services to Literature, a Silver Pen Award from the Society of Authors and awards from the Writers Guild of Great Britain. She won the L.A.Times book prize for The Heart of the Country. Her work is translated into most major languages, from China to the tiny Faröe Islands in the North Sea.
Weldon lives in rural Dorset in southwest England. She was born in Worcester, in the English midlands, but spent the first fifteen years of her life in New Zealand.
Habits of the House, by Fay Weldon. Hardcover: 320 pages, Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (January 15, 2013). Language: English, ISBN-13: 978-1250026620 $25.99
