Although I know the season is busy, I hope some others of you joined me in reading The Brandons for Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order.
Mrs. Brandon attributes her good temper and blooming if languid looks to having been many years a widow. She also likes to imply that she was unhappily married even though she had just started to be bored by her husband when he died. Whatever the reason, she is charming and captivating enough to make men fall devotedly in love with her, including the vicar, Mr. Miller, and his pupil, Mr. Grant, who is the same age as her son Francis.
Mrs. Brandon’s elderly aunt by marriage, Miss Brandon, has been holding the bequest of her money and hideous house over Francis’s head for years, hinting when she is displeased—which is almost always—that she will leave it to someone else. Francis doesn’t want it, but when she summons them all to her house, Mrs. Brandon feels that they must go. There she finds that Miss Brandon has been ill and is actively mistreating her companion, Miss Morris.
At her house they also find Mr. Grant, who it turns out is a cousin in the same situation as Francis, alternately promised and denied a legacy that he doesn’t want. Part of the novel deals with what happens when Miss Brandon dies.
Thirkell is brilliant at describing the silliness of infatuations, and here she does not spare Mrs. Brandon’s admirers. A delight of this book is its conversations, especially those involving such eccentric characters as Mrs. Grant, Mr. Grant’s mother, who patronizes others about her life in Italy and constantly embarrasses her son with her lack of manners and clanking jewelry. Some favorites reappear in this novel, including Mrs. Morland and Tony, Lydia Keith, and Noel Morton.
Thirkell continues to entertain us with her witty and charming novels.
whatmeread 
This was another great read with what seems to be developing as thread where a young man gets a crush on the older more mature woman always resolves with little to no embarrassment to either party.I found this book so funny at times, laugh out loud funny, they are so entertaining in such an inoffensive way, even in this book where that poor boy’s mother was so appalling even she was harmless in the end. So refreshing to read.
Yes, I agree. There are always some irritating characters, but really, they add to the humor, and there is no meanness about the books.
I’ve been debating for ten days on whether to contribute or not, I hope a difference of opinion is acceptable, because I know how it feels when another reader doesn’t care for a book that you loved.
For me, “The Brandons” just seemed a rehash/remix of several themes that Thirkell has already used in her first eight or so books, particularly “August Folly.” Mrs. Brandon is another lovely vacuous addle-brained brood mare like Mrs. Dean; Hilary is another Richard Tebben, with the same poor relationship with his mother. Miss Morris is another “excellent woman,” Delia another Lydia (whom I really like).
Perhaps I’ve been reading too many Thirkell/Cadell/Stevenson books together (I decided to read nothing but froth during the holidays, and so revisited many favorite classic authors). And the Mrs. Dean/Mrs. Brandon type seems to be a staple with British authors of a certain period: the lovely, useless but adored mother/aunt/sister whom everybody caters to and adores and works around. And that particular character just drives me CRAZY.
Of course, “The Brandons” is well written and well-plotted: I just found the characters boring. Does that mean that Thirkell’s satire hit home????
Well, it’s true that she has tropes and some characters with similarities, but so far, I have taken them to be individuals and not boring. But of course you can have a different opinion!