Overview
A sweeping, modern tale of love, betrayal, and decline among the British aristocracy.
At their magnificent estate, the Chandlers cling to the trappings of aristocracy in 1960s England. Beautiful eighteen-year-old Alice is marrying the heir to another fortune and her sister Eve has won a place at Oxford. But their charmed lives are not all they seem. Alice is having an affair with a handsome but disreputable lover. Her father is a philanderer whose chronic infidelity pushes his wife Felicity into the arms of another man. And Eve's academic future is cut short by an act of betrayal. Nearly forty years later, Felicity remembers that long-ago wedding day when their lives changed forever.
Wonderfully sympathetic, funny and beguiling, Annabel Dilke's The Inheritance is the story of an unusual family and very unexpected twists of fate. Intensely human and brilliantly drawn, it will shock, delight and completely seduce you.
Synopsis
A sweeping, modern tale of love, betrayal, and decline among the British aristocracy.
At their magnificent estate, the Chandlers cling to the trappings of aristocracy in 1960s England. Beautiful eighteen-year-old Alice is marrying the heir to another fortune and her sister Eve has won a place at Oxford. But their charmed lives are not all they seem. Alice is having an affair with a handsome but disreputable lover. Her father is a philanderer whose chronic infidelity pushes his wife Felicity into the arms of another man. And Eve’s academic future is cut short by an act of betrayal. Nearly forty years later, Felicity remembers that long-ago wedding day when their lives changed forever.
Publishers Weekly
Dilke charts the inevitable end of an era in this soothingly predictable romantic saga about an aristocratic British family, the Chandlers. Lord Harry; his wife, Felicity; oldest daughter Eve; darling "turtledove" Alice; and youngest children Hugo and Kathy live decorously, if not always happily, at Edgarton, the country estate that's been in the family for 400 years. It's 1965, and Alice, the beauty of the family, has made a suitable match with a "decent" chap, her titled neighbor Edward. But she loves an unscrupulous horse dealer, Marcus, and their passion reignites after her marriage. Eve, the brains of the family and Alice's best friend, is at Oxford, reading Marx and dating her working-class boyfriend, Seb. Both girls see a reversal in fortunes when Alice suffers a botched abortion from her affair, and Eve is expelled from university for her involvement. Meanwhile, their parents carry on a sham of a marriage between pheasant shoots and dinner parties until Harry's relentless philandering culminates in an affair with a servant's nubile daughter. An anticlimactic epilogue set in 2002 details the Chandler's financial demise, the sisters' role reversal and a happy blurring of class lines. Readers who relish aristocratic glamour spiced with a little class conflict will be lured by this romance. Agent, Kathleen Anderson. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
From the Publisher
“Psychologically reminiscent of John Cheever’s haunting short story ‘The Swimmer.’ Dilke’s mastery of manipulating chronology for optimum emotional effect is breathtaking.”---The Washington Post
“Wonderfully picturesque . . . deliciously over-the-top.”---The New York Times
“[Dilke] has a wonderful eye for telling details of place and person and a brisk way of summing up a character in a line.”---The Boston Globe
“Marvelous novel . . . really first class. Authentic and sharp, every word rings true.”---Rosamunde Pilcher, author of The Shell Seekers, September, and Coming Home
“Exquisitely written . . . a lovely, absorbing story.”---Elizabeth Buchan, author of Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
“[A] blend of unblinking candor and wry compassion.”---James Lipton, creator and host of Inside the Actors Studio and author of An Exaltation of Larks