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May 22, 2017TheresaAJ rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Weldon, writer of the pilot episode of Upstairs, Downstairs, introduces readers to the Earl of Dilberne's household in the fall of 1899. Alas, all is not ordered nor financially well in his rented London home at 17 Belgrave Square. The earl's investment in a South African gold mine is lost to flooding and the Boer War, his son has run up huge bills with his tailor and courtesan, and his daughter refuses to marry and is active in social causes. When a Chicago heiress with a less than discretionary past appears on the scene as an answer to the earl's financial woes, the shenanigans begin with both the upper class family and the servants who share their world. With sly wit and a great stirring of many pots, Weldon shares a now-vanished world with readers. Books 2 and 3, Long Live the King and The Last Countess, complete her trilogy. This book is the May 2017 selection of the Willa Cather Book Club.