"House of Trelawney," Hannah Rothschild

                                                                 Sydney M. Williams 

Burrowing into Books

“House of Trelawney,” Hannah Rothschild

January 22, 2021

 

“The decline and fall of the House of Trelawney would mirror

the history of Britain; like the country, Trelawney was a

shadow of its former self, a mere elegy and an effigy.”

                                                                                                                                House of Trelawney, 2020

                                                                                                                                Hannah Rothschild (1962-)

 

Aside from my daughter-in-law Beatriz Williams’ novels, and the occasional Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher story, I prefer dead writers of fiction and live writers of non-fiction. Though I avoid current political biographies and autobiographies. While there are excellent writers of fiction today, time is short and there is much classical literature I have missed. I feel like Churchill, so little time and so much to read. 

 

Having read a review of House of Trelawney in the January 2 issue of the Wall Street Journal by Moira Hodgson, I made an exception. Perhaps it was my delight in the review, or the photo of one of England’s “Great Houses,” or maybe because my wife and I had just come off a second (or third?) viewing of “Downtown Abbey,” or even the Virginia Woolf quote above the Journal’s review: “High birth is a form of congenital insanity.” Whatever the reason, I am glad I picked up this eloquent and amusing book. 

 

Primogeniture assured that large estates in England would remain intact, as title passed to the first-born son. Daughters did not count: “The family tradition was to not waste education on girls; their youth was simply a holding pattern before marriage.” Trelawney, depicted as having had at one point four miles of corridors and 500,000 acres, sits on the coast in Cornwall. For 800 years, it had been passed down from Earl to Earl. But the males who inherited the castle became increasingly unfit. Now it was in total disrepair; its only hope – find a billionaire or open it to the public: “Once upon a time the family had seen it as their right to order and punish; now their only hope was to serve and delight.” The older Earl, Enyon, lives in unheated rooms in the castle with his wife, Clarissa. In his youth, we are told, he had been called “tres horney” for his number of sexual conquests. Kitto, his oldest son and current Earl, is dumber and more depraved than his father. He has not only lost what money he had, but also his wife Jane’s inheritance.

 

In the world Rothschild offers, women are the stronger sex: “Centuries of absolute power had dulled the male brain, whereas women, forced so long to cajole and manipulate, had evolved into far more complex and capable beings.” And in this book, while somewhat dysfunctional, women play the more important role. Jane, wife to Kitto, lives at the castle and does her best to hold it together, while looking after her three children, her in-laws and pursuing an artistic interest in producing prints. She is lonely: “Jane didn’t miss wealth, or youth; what she missed desperately was friendship.” Blaze, sister to Kitto and named for a birthmark on her face, is a math genius. She is unmarried, lonely, but has a successful career in the City, where she works as a portfolio manager for the very rich but despicable Tomlinson Sleet. She wonders: “Was it possible to hate and miss people simultaneously?” Her on-again, off-again, on-again love interest with hedge fund competitor (the one decent male in the story) Joshua Wolfe, weaves its way through the story. Clarissa, mentioned above, lives in the castle amidst opulence of past dreams, but in present day poverty. Tuffy, an odd, unmarried, younger sister of Lord Enyon, is an entomologist who wins the 2009 Caldecott prize for biology. The beautiful and disruptive Ayesha, teenage daughter of Anastasia who two decades earlier had been good friends of Jane and Blaze, appears from India, after the death of her mother. She flits through the pages like a beautiful butterfly. 

 

There are many more characters. To cite a few: Tony Scott, younger brother to the old Earl, is now an aging, unmarried art dealer who lives in a London “bed-sit.” He and his niece Blaze meet for hot chocolate on September 1, 2008: “The two sat in silence for a few minutes, one imagining opportunities, the other foreseeing disaster.” We attend the “coming of age” party for Ambrose, the oldest son of Kitto and Jane, a youth even more callow and incompetent than his father or grandfather. We spend time with Arabella, younger sister of Ambrose, who develops an interest in entomology from her Great Aunt Tuffy.          

 

The dateline for the story is early June 2008 to the end of May 2009, a time when the credit crisis almost brought down the world’s financial system. That, along with England’s antiquated class system provide backdrops to the story, which takes place (mostly) in Cornwall and London. We read of the destruction wrought by banks and their government enablers, of victimizers and victims, of newly created products, like Mortgage-Backed Securities and Credit Default Swaps. And we read of a dying aristocracy: “The dead only leave the room; they remain firmly in our lives,” says Joshua Wolfe to Blaze.

 

Hannah Rothschild is the eldest child of Baron Jacob Rothschild. Educated at Oxford, she served as a trustee for the Tate Gallery and chair of trustees for the National Gallery. Her art knowledge is displayed in the characters of Jane and Tony Scott. Rothschild is noted as a comic writer, and this book adds to her reputation. But it is also a tale about the risks of adhering to a past gone by, of dangers that lurk in financial markets, and of the importance of love, the value of families and friends, and why we must keep perspective in our lives.  

 

By the end of 2008, the worst of the credit crisis was behind us, though its effects lingered, and still do. By the end of this story, the troubles of Trelawney are being addressed, but the reader knows consequences will remain. The twists and turns of the story leave one smiling…but wondering: what next happens to Ayesha?