Brothers &
Sisters
1929
Ivy achieved her full stature with Brothers and Sisters, which is about a wilful woman who inadvertently marries her half brother. In common with most of her novels, this 1929 book revolves around the secrets, evasions and general awfulness of Edwardian family life.
BRIEF PLOT SUMMARY
In the manor house of the patriarch to a quiet English village, old Andrew Stace forbids the marriage between his legitimate daughter Sophia and his adopted ward Christian, both young adults, and sends Christian away to prevent the union. Shortly after Andrew’s death, Sophia and Christian marry anyway and enjoy many apparently happy years together, producing three children: Dinah, Andrew, and Robin.
Thirty years later, Sophia rules the household through emotional blackmail and relentless demands for attention. Christian remains passive while their adult children chafe under her tyranny. When new arrivals, Mrs. Lang and her adult children Gilbert and Caroline, settle in the village, two neat sibling marriages are quickly arranged: elder Andrew Stace to Caroline Lang, and Dinah Stace to Gilbert Lang.
The idyll shatters when Mrs. Lang recognises Christian as her long-lost illegitimate son by old Andrew Stace - making Christian Sophia’s half-brother. A letter found in the late patriarch’s desk confirms the incestuous truth. Christian drops dead of shock on the spot. Sophia, eerily composed, merely remarks, “So I am Father’s sister. Well, I am not troubled about that. It only seems to draw us closer.” The engagements collapse instantly.
The Langs are half-siblings to Christian, rendering the proposed marriages disturbingly close to incest. Mrs. Lang dies soon after, followed by Sophia herself, still issuing commands from her deathbed. With both parents gone and the family’s shameful secret now public property, the three Stace children - Dinah, Andrew, and Robin - finally escape the village for London, hoping to outrun the taint of their tangled bloodlines.
The surrounding brother-and-sister pairs watch their departure with a mixture of gossip and moral smugness.
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CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"These conversations are among the most remarkable in English literature. They are like life and also they are not like life at all."
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Hugh Walpole
