Habits of the House, Synopsis

Habits of the House, by Fay Weldon.

St. Martin's Press, 2012, 314 pages.

Were I to commence with a shop-worn phrase, it might be: "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Fay Weldon’s Habits of the House tells of a family’s misfortune abetted by the self-deception of various family members.

We are in London of 1899, October 24th to be precise. There is a ring of the front door bell – several attempts really – at the home of the Earl of Dilberne. Nobody answers. The visitor waits and waits until finally someone, not even one of the servants, lets him in.

Meet the Dilbernes. The father is a gambler. The mother helps with maintaining the image the family wishes to project. They have a son who is more interested in cars than girls, and a daughter who is interested in the world according to her.

This is a tale of aristocracy. Trouble is, they rent rather than own their fashionable residence, and they are in debt to their financial advisor, whom they treat shabbily. The Dilbernes also give lavish dinners so as to try to foster the notion that all is well when all may well be otherwise.

On the morning of October 24, 1899, the Dilbernes’ financial adviser, having gotten through the front door, drops a bombshell: the family’s holdings in South African gold mines are almost certainly worthless.

The incentive to read on is: do they work it all out or not? They are in a bit of a spot.