His victims are moved to mold some clay like a voodoo doll and torture the little thing with pins and fire. The novel opens with Horace a tyrant, doling out equal parts frugality and sarcasm, his five children being the primary recipients. Horace held that saving the money, or rather preventing its being spent, was equivalent to earning it, and he pursued his course with a furtive discomfiture that clouded his life, though it could not subdue his nature. She had put off remonstrance until it had become unthinkable. He laid his hands on the balance of her income, and invested it in his own name, a practice that she viewed with an apparent indifference that was her cover for being unable to prevent it.
The love had gone and the money remained, so that advantage lay with Horace, if he could have taken so hopeful a view of his life. Horace had married her for her money, hoping to serve his impoverished estate, and she had married him for love, hoping to fulfill herself. This is the home of Horace and Charlotte Lamb. Yes, there are masters and servants, but they cross lines. Which is to say Class and Manners play heavily on the plot.īut something is askew. Mostly dialogue, it seems a pared-down classic novel from that time. This is the story of a late 19th century English family, a family of some privilege (they have tenants), and the people who serve them.
0 kommentar(er)
