The House of Eliott - Softcover

Jean Marsh

3.51

399 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330328360 ISBN 13: 9780330328364

Publisher: Pan Books, 1994

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Based on the TV series, this book tells the full story of the two Eliott sisters. Beatrice and Evangeline fight to assert themselves after their father's death. Beatrice, the elder, considers herself plain while Evangeline, her sister, is the victim of chancers and rogues.

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About the Author:

A Londoner by birth, Jean Marsh has spent most of her adult life in Oxfordshire and New York. She is best known for her Emmy-winning role as Rose Buck in Upstairs, Downstairs, which she co-created with Eileen Atkins, and in which she reappeared in the BBC's 2010 three-part remake of the series. She has acted in a wide variety of shows on stage, in film and television. Her performances have included works by Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen and Coward. Articles by Jean Marsh have appeared in the Sunday Times, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and the TV Times. She enjoys good food and walking.

From Publishers Weekly:

Based on the BBC series she coauthored (as she did the Emmy-winning Upstairs, Downstairs ), Marsh's first novel is an exuberant, glittering romp through London in the early 1920s. Following the death of their apparently affluent physician father, Evangeline and Beatrice Eliott discover they have inherited nothing but the gloomy Victorian Gothic house they inhabit. The story's deliciously detestable villains--social-climbing Aunt Lydia and her pompous, drunken son Arthur--insist that the sisters take in paying guests. Rebelling against this genteel but oppressive prospect, Beatrice finds work as a receptionist for dashing society photographer Jack Maddox. After her unusual, stylish clothes catch the eye of several of his wealthy clients, she and Evangeline start a dressmaking business that grows by leaps and bounds. The champagne-fizz thrills of Jazz-Age nightlife, the sisters' very different approaches to love and sex, and the gradual revelation of their father's sordid secrets keep the story moving at an enjoyable breakneck pace. Though the narrative doesn't stint on glamour, Marsh also shows how established notions about politics, fashion, art and women's sexuality changed dramatically in the bittersweet era following WW I.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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