The New Countess, Fay Weldon
The New Countess, Fay Weldon
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The New Countess
A Novel

Author: Fay Weldon

Narrator: Katherine Kellgren

Unabridged: 8 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/17/2013

Synopsis

From the award-winning novelist and writer of Upstairs Downstairs, the third book in a brilliant trilogy about what life was really like for masters and servants before the world of Downton Abbey.

England, 1903. Lord Robert and Lady Isobel Dilberne and the entire grand estate, with its hundred rooms, is busy planning for a visit from Edward VII and Queen Alexandra just a few months a way. Preparations are elaborate and exhaustive: the menus and fashions must be just so, and so must James, the new heir and son of Arthur Dilberne and Chicago heiress, Minnie O'Brien. But there are problems. Little James is being reared to Lady Isobel's tastes, not Minnie's. And Mrs. O'Brien is visiting from America and causing trouble. Meanwhile, the Dilbernes' niece, Adela is back and stirring up hysteria in the servants hall by claiming the house is cursed. The royal visit is imperiled, but so are the Dilberne finances once more. His Lordship is under tremendous stress, and the pecking order will soon be upset as everything at Dilberne Court changes.

The New Countess is the final novel in Fay Weldon's exciting trilogy that began with Habits of the House and Long Live the King. The bestselling novelist and award-winning writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs Downstairs lifts the curtain on British society, upstairs and downstairs, under one roof.

About Fay Weldon

After hard times and odd jobs as a lone parent, Fay Weldon became one of the top advertising copywriters of her generation. She moved to TV drama (writing the pilot episode of the iconic series Upstairs Downstairs) then turned to novels – including the classic The Life and Loves of a She Devil and the Booker-shortlisted Praxis. Fay was made a CBE for services to literature and taught Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

About Katherine Kellgren

Katherine Kellgren has recorded over 200 audiobooks and won four Audie Awards, three ALA Odyssey Honors, and eight AudioFile Earphones Awards. In 2011, Kellgren was named the  Best Voice in Young Adult & Fantasy, and she won the Audie award for Best Female Narrator in both 2013 and 2014.  Kellgren has also appeared onstage in London, New York and Frankfurt. She has recorded numerous plays and dramatizations of novels for the radio, including winners of the Peabody Award. She is a graduate of The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In naming Kellgren a “Golden Voice,” AudioFile magazine noted that she is a "marvel with accents...she is definitely a narrator to keep an ear out for." She lives in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Joyce on March 25, 2015

Enjoyable series for anyone who appreciates a more satirical look at the Downton Abbey lifestyle. Kellgren reads, and she makes the most of Weldon's sometimes over-the-top prose. Perfectly delightful and amusingly snarky.......more

Goodreads review by Candice on November 12, 2020

This is the last in her trilogy and it was hilarious!! I could only get an audio version of it which I normally don't like because I read at night and listening puts me to sleep as if Mommy is reading me a book to get me to go to bed with my teddy bear, so it took a while to get through despite the......more

Goodreads review by Stevie on February 19, 2018

This was a good way to wrap up the series. Weldon did a nice job wrapping up the storylines and you can easily see where their lives are headed beyond the end of the book.......more

Goodreads review by Kristin on October 17, 2019

Erm...did St. Martin’s Press even bother to read the blatantly false representation of the plot on the inner cover?......more

Goodreads review by Ruth on May 01, 2014

This is the final book in Weldon's trilogy. I did like it the best because of some unexpected events in the plot. As in the previous books Weldon has done an outstanding job depicting England and the "upstairs/downstairs" characters. In this story the King has invited himself to the Dilberne country......more

Quotes

“Kellgren is the perfect narrator to capture the underlying sarcastic tone of Weldon's story, ably switching between accents for the upper-class British, the Americans, and the servants. The pacing is excellent and the overall effect is a humorously snarky look at a slowly vanishing way of life.” —Booklist

Awards

  • Booklist Editors' Choice
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