BULLIVANT AND THE LAMBS

England in the '90's, for an ironic, precise if passionless portrait of a household. Horace Lamb had married Charlatte for her money but refrained from spending it almost to the point of penury; Bullivant was the omnipresent majordomo. Here in very British-style humor is the routine of days pursued almost to tedium; the punctilios of the servants; the paternal priorities of Horace, which cost him his children's affection; the love of his Cousin Mortimer and Charlette, which he prevents by ordering Mortimer from the house and planning his marriage to another. The master proves he has more than one life, as he escapes death at the hands of his sons, of his feetman, of the threat of natural sources -- and survives them all to retain a position of respect...A more authentic than attractive satire of county life two generations age, of unlikely popularity.