Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination may have meant the start of World War I, but it also meant the beginning of the end for tsarist Russia. With the War going badly, things soon turned to revolution, and many noble families were forced to flee.
The Grazinsky family finds refuge in England with Anna’s beloved governess, but the move has left them nearly penniless. What meager funds they have are used to send Anna’s young brother to school so that he may keep a position in life more like what they left behind. In an effort to do her part, Anna puts thoughts of her life as a Countess behind her and seeks work as a servant. She finds herself at Mersham, the estate of the Earl of Westerholme. While the Earl is dashing and charming, he is also very much engaged to a woman of breathtaking beauty and immense fortune. As Anna starts to fall in love with the people of the estate, including its handsome owner, the Earl’s fiancee begins to show her true colors. But with the estate in deep financial trouble, the Earl is not only honor bound to keep his troth, but fiscally bound as well.
Ibbotson writes with excessive beauty. Her descriptions are so very lovely you cannot help but to want to go to the places she describes. While The Countess Below Stairs is not as evocative as the books she sets in her native Austria, her accounts of the Russian aristocracy (both in Russia and in exile) carry a wonderful sense of other-worldliness. The only fault I find is that Ibbotson often writes her villains dark to the point of caricature. Dear Muriel is no exception. While her obsession with Eugenics may seem bizarre, it is interesting to consider it through the lens of Ibbotson’s own experience. Ibbotson and her family fled Vienna when Hitler rose to power, so while it remains unstated throughout the book, the connection between Muriel and Dr. Lightbody’s philosophy and Nazi practice is considerable.
Warning: Eva Ibbotson writes for children, teens and adults. Her books need to be considered independently when you are determining whether or not the content is appropriate for a given reader.
Great for: A lovely work of historical fiction, this will appeal to lovers of fairy tales and historical fiction. While Ibbotson’s books are all over the map in terms of content, this remains fairly chaste, making it a good choice for teens and tweens.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – Compared to the other romances I’ve read of late, this is quite innocent, without so much as a kiss passing between the main characters. There are a few references to certain women as buxom or full-breasted. A brief scene includes a man accidentally noticing a woman bathing in a lake, but there isn’t any real implication of him seeing anything inappropriate. An elderly uncle likes to grab/grope/pinch servant girls, it is treated lightly. A very minor subplot involves an unsavory branch of the family who has some children out of wedlock/getting a housegirl pregnant issues. A Jewish woman laments the possibility of an uncircumsized grandson. There’s a major subplot mentioned above about Eugenics. This means some discussion of how only attractive people should mate and that the only reason people should “touch” is for the purpose of creating more beautiful offspring. The people that believe these things are definitely treated as slightly crazy.
Profanity – “God,” “ass,” “hell,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Set before, during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution, there are quite necessarily some deaths and injuries. Quite obviously Archiduke Franz Ferdinand is shot, various Russian nobles are injured, threatened and killed, and there are many war deaths mentioned. The detail of the war deaths ranges from simply the fact that the person died, to short descriptions of the death (i.e., was blown up at Verdun). The Earl has nightmares about seeing a fellow soldier die of burns. The Russian Club features a trunk which may contain a mummified grandmother. One house contains horrid paintings and tapestry which include the martyring of various saints. There’s a rumor about a black sheep family member who murdered his wife. There are two very minor tangential deaths. There’s a quick joke that someone will beat his wife. A man says he’ll kill anyone who harms a certain character.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – A character has a cigarette. Alcohol is mentioned throughout, both drunk, but also used in cooking. A character’s total abstinence is regarded as bizarre (especially as it pertains to using wine in cooking).
Frightening or Intense Things – None.
