The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

     As I have stated before, at our library’s book club, we don’t all read the same book, instead we are given a theme, and can choose a book that relates to that theme.  For October, with a nod to Halloween, our theme was “Gothic”.

    I confess, I was not at all motivated or enthusiastic about the theme of “Gothic”.  The word gothic conjured up visions of dark castles, grim settings, gloom, fear, and probably terror; all of which were things I didn’t really care to be immersed in, but being the trooper, I went over to the book shelf to peruse the suggested books that were related to the gothic theme, and chose Kate Morton’s novel, The House at Riverton.  It seemed to be set in England in the period of time around World War I, a time period I have always been interested in, because that had been the beginning of the breakdown of England’s stiff caste system.

      Once I got the book home and started reading, I was very happy with the choice, because it turned out not be in the gothic genre at all.  It turned out to be a rather normal historical fiction, without any overlays of gloom, darkness, or fear.  Happily, the featured manor house in the story, which was probably the reason the story got slotted into the gothic category, was not dark or gloomy at all.

    The storyline is built around Grace, an adolescent girl, who had been living with her mother, but left when  given a job in service at the large manor house near her town.  Although separated by her working class status, Grace soon established a bit of a close relationship with the David, Hannah, and Emmeline,  the upper class children of Grace’s age, who spent their summers at the manor house.  This relationship with Hannah, the more mature and progressive sibling, strengthened, as they all matured into adulthood. 

    Hannah, a closet suffragette, hated the role forced on females in British society.  She dreamed of being an independent woman, free to travel, and pursue whatever she wished, but she was tricked into marriage with a young banker, with promises of travel and adventure.  Those dreams quickly evaporated after the wedding, when Hannah was kept at home.  Grace became Hannah’s lady’s maid, so she followed Hannah into her new life of managing the banker’s home.  

    As the reader might expect, Hannah’s growing boredom with her new role as wife, soon led to an affair with Robbie, an old childhood friend of her brother, who had become a famous Bohemian-style poet.  Robbie had returned from World War I, shell-shocked, and lived a rather unconventional and unstable life, but he and Hannah fall deeply in love.  Another thing the reader begins to expect is that Hannah’s relationship with Robbie is going to come to a very bad end, which it does.

    While some some events in the novel are predicable, the story is not without its surprises.  The story of Grace’s life is largely framed as flashbacks. Brought on when Grace, at the ripe old age of 90, is interviewed by a female movie director, who is making a film about what happened at the manor house when Hannah and Robbie tried to make their break and escape from Hannah’s marriage.

I have always enjoyed reading historical fiction, and this fit right in to that enjoyment.  The house at Riverton was a much better choice for me, than a stereotypical gothic tale. 

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