A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson

[meganbmoore]

Anna Grazinsky is a Russian countess who fled the Russian Revolution with the remnants of her family, ending up in England in 1919. However, a servant disappeared with all of the family jewels, leaving them penniless, so Anna, armed with a 2000 page book about being a proper maid, gets herself hired as temporary help at the estate of the Earl of Westerholme. Despite her unconventional ways, she tries hard and becomes a good maid, and soon finds herself falling in love with Rupert, the Earl. Even beyond the problem of her being a maid in his household, however, is his engagement to Muriel, a beautiful but snobbish heiress who plans to remake Westerholme in her own image. 

While I’m no expert on the period, I think it’s probably safe to say that while Ibbotson seems to have given good attention to historical detail in terms of events and dressing, relationships between the classes fell to the wayside. While I can buy into Anna getting hired despite clearly not being suitable (but just barely) her interactions with Rupert and his family in the context of her being a maid are a little too much. The book, however, treats the story almost purely as a fairy tale, and doesn’t pretend to be anything but. Characters are either very good and pure, or very nasty. Mistakes and insults are either dismissed with an apology, or proof that a person is horrible. Shades of gray don’t exist in this world.

The end result is that the book is charming, but part of what makes it charming makes it rather "surface only," and kept me from ever really being invested.  There was never really any need to worry about anything or anyone. I liked reading it, but there never seems to be much depth to the characters or relationships.  Everything is played completely straight and there's nothing resembling character growth or complexity with any of the characters.  It makes it easier to read because there's no real need to think, but it also reduces the need to care very much.  I’ll probably read more of Ibbotson’s books if I stumble across them, but I doubt I’ll make a lot of effort to find more. 
 
As a side note, it's marketed as YA, but I suspect it was marketed as either "romance" or "general fiction" when it first came out in 1981.

Comments

[radiotrash.livejournal.com]

I like the book alright but I really disliked how Anna was just so good and pure and even in her clumsiness was charming. I would have actually preferred if, instead of instantly taking to being poor and having to work, she was a bit spoiled and not as eager to do hard labor. It would have been fun to see the transformation, instead of her staying a the same character from the beginning to the end of the book.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's a kind of catch 22 thing, because part of the charm is that everything is so pure and clear and black and white that you don't have to think at all, but at the same time, you don't really need to care because there's no difficulties or character growth throughout. The only problem to be addressed is the too-easy-to-hate fiancee.

Actually, when I started the book and it was so insistent that Anna was kind and sweet and not remotely spoiled, I wondered if this was going to be one of those with a slightly tongue-in-cheek unreliable narrators, and was a bit disappointed when I realized it was being played incredibly straight.

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

You nailed it. I just read this a few weeks ago after reading another of Ibbotson's (that was the ballet dancer one) and there are character types that she reuses I would gather a lot since I picked two at random and the types were there -- the more worthy younger son, the great house in need of love to come back into its own, everyone knowing and hugging desperately to their place, the pure, perfect, special young woman, the perfect child who adores the girl, the evil other woman, etc.

I liked both books, but they are very disposable and fluffy.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Hmm...those are actually fairly common 19th-early 20th century romance tropes in general.

I've largely been in the mood for fluffy and non-fluffy stuff set in that general period lately, either historical ficton(romance, fantasy, mystery, whatever) or "based on" worlds, so it was pretty much what I've been wanting to read lately, so I have no real complaints. I have to say, though, that it's a bit disappointing that she went with "evil" for Muriel, as only a few adjustments wou7ld have made her "ok, but clearly not right for him."