Book 114: The New Countess by Fay Weldon
Book 114: The New Countess (Love and Inheritance #3).
Author: Fay Weldon, 2013.
Genre: Period Fiction. Edwardian Britain. Comedy of Manners. Family Drama. GLBT.
Other Details: Hardback. 320 pages.
Having read and enjoyed the first two books I was certainly going to read the final one in the trilogy to see how things played out. The official synopsis gives too many spoilers for events in previous books as well as some of those in this one. I would not recommend this book be read out of sequence anyway as the characters and story have played out over the trilogy.
The novel opens in June 1905 as we rejoin Lord Robert and Lady Isobel Dilberne, their children, and the servants who are so essential to the smooth running of both their country estate and London residence. Again a royal occasion informs the plot when the King invites himself along with his mistress to the Dilberne estate for a shooting party in December. Thus, there is a frantic rush to bring this rather crumbling pile up to scratch for the forthcoming royal visit.
In The New Countess the focus was more upon the women of the family; Minnie, Arthur's Irish-American bride who is feeling lonely and neglected; Isobel, the current Countess, who is caught up in the refurbishment and determined to impress Mrs. Kepple, the King's mistress; and Lady Rosina, who takes up with a sexually liberated literary set and plans to publish a controversial book. Various scandals come to light in the run up to the planned visit threatening the family's reputation.
There was a slightly more comic feel to this over the previous two books, especially in terms of the relationships. Still,l it did not quite become a farce but sometimes skated close. It proved a fast and pleasant read with some interesting twists along the way.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.