The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

I first picked up The House at Riverton because it is about an era I enjoy, Edwardian England.  I was surprised to discover that it starts in 1914 and travels to 1999.  (Actually it starts in 1998 and goes back to 1914 and comes forward and then ends in 1999).  I had thought it was going to be a fascinating little upper class house party story.  Well, there are house parties but the story is more--it is about the major changes in society and how they are resisted and embraced. 

World War I accelerated the changes, servants and the nobility alike enlisted in the service to save the world.  Thousands died or were maimed, mentally and physically.  Women had to enter the work force and become independent.  (I realize that's a good thing, but their parent's didn't think so).   Upper class young women's main occupation was to prepare themselves for marriage and children and to be a decoration to their husbands.  

All of this is told through the eyes of Grace Bradley a ninety-eight year old former housemaid and now a retired Doctor of Archeology living in a rest home. A young woman, Ursula comes to visit Grace to ask about the suicide of a poet, Robbie Hunter, which happened at Riverton in the summer of 1924.  Ursula is making a film of the house party and the suicide and wants Grace to verify that the set for the movie is accurate, and also add any information.   Grace clearly remembers her first day as a fourteen-year-old entering into service at the House at Riverton.  Her training begins when she is told that she was to be honored and grateful working for the Hartfords, the owners of Riverton, and she was to keep their secrets and deserve their trust.  Grace did.  She kept a secret from the first time she was with the children, David, Hannah, and Emmeline, and she kept all the secrets of Hannah and Emmeline until after her own death in 1999.  The House at Riverton is a mystery, a social history and proof of how the present is haunted by the past.  Enjoy.