Love and Inheritance by Fay Weldon (spoilers for both books)

 First, a general update. Although I am doing pretty well on the general reading and keeping up to date on my Goodreads target, I am not doing that great on the Proust, particularly during the half term I have just enjoyed. This week I am hoping to get to a point where I can start writing another section for BIHNR. Otherwise, I have two reviews that I want to write for books that I have read recently.

I have recently read two books out of the Love and Inheritance trilogy. I have previously read some Fay Weldon, but not that much. I admit, I was expecting the books to be a bit more literary and I found them quite a disappointing read overall, although they were quite entertaining and readable, they could also be quite frustrating at times. 

The books chart the fortunes of a rich family at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the first one there are descriptions of both the lives of the family and the servants, but in the second book Long live the King there is not as much description of the servants. The primary reason I think that the first book is a let down is that the family are both quite dislikeable and the use of reported speech seems to remove them from the reader so that they don’t come across as being that realistic. Rosina, the daughter, seems to fair particularly badly. She is a complete prig with seemingly no redeeming features or much of a reason for being the way that she is, so she just puts the reader off. By no means am I saying that a writer should write characters that readers would want to be friends with (as Jennifer Weiner has spouted off about recently), but there should be something that makes the reader want to follow the course of their story. 

To be honest, none of the characters are really that interesting, and I doubted the veracity of Isobel (the wife’s) title and position as a leader of society considering she was the illegitimate daughter of a showgirl and a coal magnate and her parents never married.  They are really snobbish towards the Baums (Robert’s lawyer who tries to save their fortune) in particular, for little reason. 

The plot of Book one (Habits of the House) centres around the attempts of the family to marry the son off to a wealthy meat heiress as they have lost money during the war in Transvaal, and to organise a dinner party for the Prince of Wales. The dinner party is never covered, the book ends on the invitations being sent out, and the loss of money is never that keenly felt. Just as Arthur is about to marry his meat heiress, the head of the family (Robert) saves them all anyway by winning a fortune on a horse and the book ends abruptly.

Book Two opens a couple of years later with Arthur and his meat heiress married (there were some problems as Minnie had left America having had a well-publicised affair with an artist which she had foolishly admitted to Arthur) and the introduction of Adela, a cousin who lives with her strict religious parents. There is a little less emphasis on the servants of the family, and a bit more on the Baums, who I found interesting, particularly Mrs. Baum the Zionist scientist; I think I would have preferred it if there was more emphasis on her. 

There is less use of reported speech, thankfully, but Rosina still gets short shrift. This time, she has a romance with an artist which is scarcely described, I wonder if Fay just didn’t like writing about her? The parts with Adela start off promisingly but descend into a ludicrous plot about clairvoyancy culminating in her saving the King’s life by touch alone. The King and the Queen are good friends of the family and there are lots of dinner parties where Isobel advises the Queen on what to wear and what crown to have created. It doesn’t lend an air of realism to the book. 

Lucky they've got the illegitimate daughter of a showgirl and a coal baron to advise them

Overall, the first book got two stars and the second book got three (out of five). I feel a little bit like I am being a bit harsh here and giving the books a hatchet job, and they are both readable and entertaining, I think the most disappointing thing about them is that there are good books poking out in places, which makes it frustrating for the reader. There is a sense that she was cashing in on Downton, but at least with Downton you feel some sympathy with the characters and the plot is engaging, even when it’s being more like a period soap. I will read the third book, but I’m not in a hurry to buy it or get it out from the library as soon as it comes out.