Habits of the House is a brilliant new trilogy from the award-winning novelist and writer of Upstairs Downstairs, offering a captivating glimpse into the lives of masters and servants in the era before Downton Abbey.
As the Season of 1899 draws to a close, the world stands on the precipice of profound, irrevocable change. The Earl of Dilberne faces grave financial concerns, with ripple effects that spread to every member of the household in Belgrave Square. Lord Robert, having gambled unwisely on the stock market, seeks a position in the Cabinet, while his unmarried children, Arthur and Rosina, pursue their own diversions. Lady Isobel manages the affairs of the household, and Grace, the lady's maid, attends to her mistress.
Seeing no financial relief for the heavily mortgaged estate, Lord Robert sets his sights on securing a suitable wife (and dowry) for his son, despite the Season's end. The arrival in London of Minnie, a beautiful Chicago heiress with a tarnished reputation, appears to be the answer to their prayers.
With wit, sympathy, and a touch of mischief, Fay Weldon, writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs, Downstairs, plots the interplay of restraint and desire, manners and morals, reason and instinct in this captivating tale of the British aristocracy and the servants who tended to them in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.