The House at Riverton

The House at Riverton examines the hierarchical structures of the early 20th century, determined by the circumstances of birth. The novel explores how the characters’ lives are shaped historical dynamics of class and gender, especially within a dynastical setting. The narrative exposes these inequalities through the central hidden mystery of Grace’s own identity as the “illegitimate” daughter of Mr. Frederick, and invites comparisons of various characters’ experiences to reveal changing attitudes. 

This theme is expressed most strongly through the narrative pairing of Grace and Hannah. As half-sisters, the stark differences in their lives are caused by the chance circumstances of their births: Hannah the recognized, privileged daughter of an aristocrat, Grace the unrecognized half-sister obliged to serve the family. The novel emphasizes the similarities between Grace and her half-siblings, including their appearance and abilities, creating an uncanny familial unit for lonely Grace, in whom they arouse “odd feelings” of connection (37). This not only signals a clue to their familial relationship but helps expose the arbitrariness of the wide gap in status caused by birth. This is exemplified by Grace’s growing awareness of her mother’s cottage and circumstances as compared to the grandeur and excitement of Riverton House. 

The novel also explores the divide between men and women in traditional British social structures, especially through primogeniture and inheritance, as boys were placed before girls irrespective of age. From the outset, David’s privilege and freedom as a boy is made explicit in contrast to the more constrained lives of his sisters, a structural gender-based discrimination that Hannah particularly resents. Robbie provides a second comparison, this time to Grace. Although his heritage is very similar to Grace’s—both are the result of an extra-marital affair between an upper-class man and a maid—Robbie is “reclaimed” in order to become his father’s heir. Grace, as a girl, can be of no formal value to the Hartford family’s bloodline and remains unrecognized.

The sub-plot of Riverton’s decline and loss of the family’s male line through the generations sets up a critique of paternalistic patterns of inheritance. An additional dark irony is created by the novel’s use of the disease hemophilia within this inheritance subplot: Major Jonathon and Jemima lose their heirs to this genetic disease, carried by women but only expressed in male children. While the household prays for Jemima to have another boy—her “duty” to the family—she privately wishes only for a girl who will survive, even if this means mother and daughter being passed over in the line of succession. 

As the novel develops, it traces social progress over time with regard to class, gender, and single or unmarried motherhood, creating numerous examples of single mothers and children born outside marriage at different points in the 20th century. The social stigma and shame that attaches to Grace and her mother through the “illegitimate” birth is emphasized in Chapter 6. Grace remembers being treated with scorn and suspicion by a woman in the street as a child, and how her mother referred to her birth as a “mistake,” speaking of her sacrifice in not leaving Grace at the “foundling hospital” (77). While living with stigma, Grace’s mother has the discreet financial and social support of Mr. Frederick. Her relative security is juxtaposed with the story of Robbie’s mother, also a maid, who dies by suicide after being trapped in cruel circumstances by Lord Hunter. These early-century examples of prejudice have later, more progressive equivalents, too. Hannah’s orphaned child Florence is of uncertain parentage but is adopted by Jemima as a sister to Gytha, forming a little family of dispossessed Hartford women who seek a new life in America. Ursula, Florence’s granddaughter, reveals herself to be a single mother to her son Finn in Chapter 11. She and Grace compare their experiences of bringing up children as single parents, in the mid- and late-20th century respectively. The novel’s layering of these experiences of motherhood reveals changing, progressive attitudes over time, giving this theme a positive narrative arc.