Elders &
Betters
1944
The Donne family's move to the country is inspired by a wish to be close to their cousins, who are to be their nearest neighbours. It proves too close for comfort, however.
BRIEF PLOT SUMMARY
Bernard Donne moves his family closer to his two sisters to help care for the ailing Sukey, who lives with Jessica, her low-earning writer husband Thomas Calderon, and their four children. Sukey’s monthly allowance has long kept the Calderon household afloat, but her constant complaints about being near death have numbed the family’s sympathy. When Bernard’s plain, strong-willed daughter Anna forms a surprising bond with Sukey, the old lady confides in her during a visit.
Sukey shows her a new will leaving her money to Anna instead of Jessica, but asks her to burn it out of lingering loyalty to her sister. Once Sukey falls asleep, Anna swaps the wills, burns the original, and leaves. Sukey dies that night. The family is shocked to discover the fortune has gone to Anna. Jessica, convinced this final act does not reflect her sister’s true character, relentlessly questions Anna.
Cornered, Anna explodes, accusing Jessica of tyrannising her own children with guilt, false goodness, and emotional coercion. Soon afterwards, Jessica is found dead in Sukey’s room - she has killed herself. In the aftermath, Anna becomes engaged to Jessica’s son Terence, motivated by her secret love for him and the power her new wealth gives her. Thomas Calderon, now impoverished, shocks everyone by announcing his plan to marry the much younger Florence Lacy. Jealous and vindictive, his daughter Tullia accepts a sudden proposal from Bernard Donne.
Thomas tries to dissuade Tullia by declaring she will always be first in his life, but Florence witnesses their intimate embrace and withdraws from the engagement. Bernard’s son Esmond promptly proposes to Florence instead. Both fathers end up alone with only their youngest children. Thomas dramatically declares to little Julius and Dora that he will now be their father, mother, sister, brother, and friend. The two children, who inhabit their own private world, respond with indifference. In the garden, they watch Bernard’s lame youngest son Ruben praying at their secret rock-altar to their invented god.
After joining his ritual briefly, they coldly dismiss him. As they watch the rejected boy limp away, Julius declares with complacent finality: “Well, that disposed of him. The precincts of our temple cannot be polluted by his presence. Our temple is not his temple, nor our god his god.”
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"A remarkable and unusual novelist, who has, in her own well-tilled field, no rival and no parallel."
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Times Literary Supplement
