Parents &
Children
1941
Ranging from nursery to university age, the nine Sullivan children live with their parents, Eleanor and Fulbert, in a huge country house belonging to Fulbert's parents, Sir Jesse and Lady Regan.
BRIEF PLOT SUMMARY
At the grand Sullivan country manor house, Sir Jesse Sullivan presides over his son Fulbert, Fulbert’s honest but vague wife Eleanor, and their nine children. Fulbert’s fiercely maternal mother Lady Regan silently disapproves of Eleanor’s lax parenting, while Eleanor herself longs for a home of her own. When Fulbert departs for six months in South America, he appoints young Ridley Cranmer (son of family friends) as guardian of his children in case of disaster. Soon after, a letter arrives announcing Fulbert’s death. Ridley breaks the news with tact and, months later, asks the widowed Eleanor to marry him.
The family is stunned when the couple plan to live alone, leaving the nine children behind. The day before the wedding, 9 year-old Gavin spots a gaunt man in his father’s old coat emerging from a local inn. The man is Fulbert himself. He had fallen gravely ill, written the death letter, lost his memory, then recovered and sent a second letter announcing his return. That letter was never received. Discovering Eleanor’s impending marriage, Fulbert had chosen to stay hidden at the inn rather than disrupt events — until his son recognised him. Fulbert returns home dramatically.
After a decorous reunion with Eleanor and a civil exchange with Ridley, the family seems ready to move on. Then young Gavin finds a loose page in Ridley’s notebook containing a damning to-do list: “Arrange licence. Take house. Fulbert at Crown Inn… Keep paper as letter destroyed. Write from abroad, as if delayed…” The family confronts Ridley, who defends himself unrepentantly: Eleanor would have been happier with him, and he refused to remain in Fulbert’s service forever. Sir Jesse furiously silences him, but Ridley calmly produces a photograph of Sir Jesse tenderly embracing the mother of the orphaned Marlowe siblings (who live in a cottage on the estate) and reveals that Sir Jesse is their real father.
The children absorb these revelations about their elders’ flaws and hypocrisies. Fulbert resumes his place as head of the household, Regan’s possessive maternal grip tightens once more, and the Marlowes quietly learn the truth of their parentage. Sir Jesse, aware he has been exposed, simply raises his hat to his illegitimate daughter Priscilla through the window and walks on.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"To Miss Compton-Burnett the family conflict is intimate, unrelenting, very often indecisive and fought out mainly in conversation.... The passions which bring distress to her country houses have recently devastated continents."
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Edwin Muir, The Observer
