Edith Lavery, the pretty daughter of an accountant, meets gossip-column favorite Charles Broughton (Earl of Broughton and heir to the Marquess of Uckfield) at Ascot. When he proposes and she accepts, does she really love him, or is she merely dazzled by his title and money? In a tale that mixes contemporary Jane Austen with the brilliant social commentary of Gosford Park, Julian Fellowes chronicles Edith's rise and fall with twists and turns aplenty. Through the eyes of his narrator, a journeyman actor who manages to negotiate the choppy waters of snobbery and excess as he moves between the upper and middle classes, Fellowes gives us a delicious comedy of manners to rival Oscar Wilde at his wittiest.
Reviews
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This is the first novel of the man who wrote the screenplay for Robert Altman's film GOSFORD PARK. The book skewers the modern English aristocracy just as effectively as the film skewered the pre-War elite, and Richard Morant is perfectly cast in the narrator's role of upper-class observer. The action centers on a young woman who becomes a countess by marrying up, and her mother-in-law, the Marchioness, who suspects her of marrying only for the title. Given the negligible attractions of her son, the Marchioness's suspicions seem reasonable. The narrator-observer who tells the story also explains the unwritten rules of the game known to all upper-crust participants and to none of the not-quite-upper crust. Morant carries out this quasi-instructional role expertly, just as he reads the characters convincingly. A first-rate, thoroughly entertaining performance. R.E.K. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Julian Fellowes won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Robert Altman's Gosford Park. He also wrote the screenplay for the recent version of Vanity Fair, starring Reese Witherspoon. He and his wife divide their time between London and their country house in Dorset.
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