BKMT READING GUIDES
Habits of the House
by Fay Weldon
Paperback : 336 pages
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From the award-winning novelist and writer of Upstairs Downstairs, the launch of a brilliant new trilogy about what life was really like for masters and servants before the world of Downton Abbey
As the Season of 1899 comes to an end, the world is poised on the brink of profound, ...
Introduction
From the award-winning novelist and writer of Upstairs Downstairs, the launch of a brilliant new trilogy about what life was really like for masters and servants before the world of Downton Abbey
As the Season of 1899 comes to an end, the world is poised on the brink of profound, irrevocable change. The Earl of Dilberne is facing serious financial concerns. The ripple effects spread to everyone in the household: Lord Robert, who has gambled unwisely on the stock market and seeks a place in the Cabinet; his unmarried children, Arthur, who keeps a courtesan, and Rosina, who keeps a parrot in her bedroom; Lord Robert’s wife Isobel, who orders the affairs of the household in Belgrave Square; and Grace, the lady’s maid who orders the life of her mistress.
Lord Robert can see no financial relief to an already mortgaged estate, and, though the Season is over, his thoughts turn to securing a suitable wife (and dowry) for his son. The arrival on the London scene of Minnie, a beautiful Chicago heiress with a reputation to mend, seems the answer to all their prayers.
As the writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs, Downstairs—Fay Weldon brings a deserved reputation for magnificent storytelling. With wit and sympathy—and no small measure of mischief—Habits of the House plots the interplay of restraint and desire, manners and morals, reason and instinct.
Excerpt
The House Awakes6.58 a.m. Tuesday, 24th October 1899
IN LATE OCTOBER of the year 1899 a tall, thin, nervy young man ran up the broad stone steps that led to No. 17 Belgrave Square. He seemed agitated. He was without hat or cane, breathless, unattended by staff of any kind, wore office dress – other than that his waistcoat was bright yellow above smart striped stove-pipe trousers – and his moustache had lost its curl in the damp air of the early morning. He seemed both too well-dressed for the tradesman’s entrance at the back of the house, yet not quite fit to mount the front steps, leave alone at a run, and especially at such an early hour. ...
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Discussion Questions
1. Where do your sympathies lie in this novel? In what ways do the problems of the various members of the different classes (aristocratic, servant, and in-between) seem familiar or alien to life in the modern world?2. What was life like for men and women at the turn of the twentieth century? How much has changed?
3. Minnie, unusual in her generation, has had some sexual experience. Do you think she’s really shocked by Arthur’s suggestion at the Inn, or is she just pretending? To what extent do you think the romance between Minnie and Arthur would work if it were updated to the twenty-first century?
4. Grace is a wonderfully independent spirit. She leaves the safety of her job and goes to Chicago with Mrs. O’Brien. How do you think she gets on over there? What sort of business would you set up if you were in Grace’s shoes?
5. The argument against female suffrage at the time was that
a) women always voted as their menfolk did, so what difference would it make? and b) even if women did vote independently, since they far outnumbered men in the population the results of any general suffrage would be unjustly skewed. What would Rosina’s response to this have been?
6. Try to imagine these characters in a modern setting. For example, would Isobel still be a lady who lunches? Would Robert still be promoted in politics with the same ease as now? (Just a right word at the right time.) Would Arthur still be off with the ladies? What might Rosina be doing with her time and energy?
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