BOOKISH
ON THE BRITISH SITCOM To the Manor Born (1979-1981), a posh and haughty Englishwoman named Au- drey fforbes-Hamilton finds herself widowed and financially obliged to sell her stately home in the countryside and move into a none-too-shabby out- building. The buyer is one Richard De- Vere, proprietor of Cavendish Foods, previously residing in London. A new- money tycoon. The nerve of him, buy- ing property that rightfully belongs to the aristocracy! Richard may be self-made, but he wants to do right by his new envi- rons. He just hasn’t a clue how to take on that role. If you’ve ever watched a TV show before, you can guess where this is headed. Audrey and Richard become a couple, thereby fusing old money and new. New, and suspect: Richard, it turns out, was born Bedřich Polou- vicek. While he seems every bit the British gentleman, Richard’s roots are exposed whenever his clingy, heavi- ly accented mother shows up. “We came over in 1939, from Czechoslova- kia,” Mrs. Polouvicek informs a horri- fied Audrey, who had until that point thought the elderly woman was Rich- ard’s maid. “Do you mean he isn’t En- glish at all?” Audrey’s husband is not just new money, but an obscenely wealthy Eastern European foreigner. Is he meant to be, you know…? Richard DeVere is not an explic- itly Jewish character. Jewish-coded, though, is no stretch: the character is likely based on Sir James Goldsmith, of Cavenham Foods, a member of the Rothschild-associated Goldschmidt family. The message the show sends is that you can buy your way into the gentry, but only if you abide by its traditions and find an aristocrat prepared to fall in love with you. Acceptance is possi- ble but must be coaxed over the course
Unknown Country When you’ve been shut out of land ownership for centuries, can buying a lavish manor house
be a form of resistance? by PHOEBE MALTZ BOVY
ABOVE Benjamin Disraeli’s Hughenden Manor.
5785 אביב 59
PHOTOGRAPHS BY HELÉNE BINET
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