Oh the curse of being a reader who loves old British novels. Either your beloved author is slowly be rediscovered or you’re stuck combing the libraries to find anything by that lovely author. I should consider myself fortunate D.E. Stevenson is in the rediscovery stage but it’s agony waiting for The Two Mrs Abbots and The Four Graces to come out as e-books and trade paperbacks. But while I wait for mid year 2014 to come around, I’m trolling the inter-library loan system to see if any other D.E. Stevenson books out there will enchant me as much as the adventure of Barbara Buncle did.

The stacks of my local library coughed up D.E. Stevenson’s Celia’s House, a 1943 novel (republished in the 1970s), a charming story about the Dunne family and their Scottish ancestral home Dunnian. The basic plot, ancient disappointed in love spinster Celia Dunne leaves her family home and fortune to her grandnephew Humphrey Dunne instead of her expected heir Maurie Dunne. The catch? Humphrey only has a life interest in Dunnian. After his death, Dunnian will pass to his daughter Celia (who isn’t even born left alone conceived) at this time. Old Miss Celia dies, the Humphrey Dunnes move and time passes focusing on the younger generation of Dunnes. Oldest son Mark learns to love the land, distant cousin Deb finds a home her flighty mother Joan can’t provide and the new Celia is born. The family survives World War I intact, hearts are broken and love is found in the 1920s/1930s and Dunnian faces World War II.

Celia’s House was a quick and cosy read while curled on Mr Couch with the January winds whipping around Moderate Income Apartments. As when the Dunne clan is preparing breakfast in the thick of World War II? Well, it felt perfectly decadent to be eating Aldi’s private label Double Chocolate Milano knockoffs while wondering if I should turn the rest of the challah bread into French toast. The Dunnes are getting ready to eat burnt porridge <cue Jane Eyre flashbacks> and tiny bit of bacon. And one of the characters actually likes Spam.

Besides making me feel like a truffle eating prize sow in my lovely warm living room while reading (Blacklight: “oink”), parts of Celia’s House seemed lifted right of out Miss Buncle Married. There’s no deep mystery needing to be solved or worrying if the now Mrs Abbot will be revealed as scandalous author John Smith. What we do have is the device of an elderly aunt making a will that favors a different relative than expected with unusual conditions (Miss Bunce Married: Jerry gets the estate if she isn’t married, Celia’s House: Humphrey gets the estate for his life only and then it goes to his daughter Celia). And the estate in question not being entailed so that the elderly female relation can do whatever she likes with the place. With certain males shaking their heads and thinking it’s a dashed shamed that the dear old place isn’t entailed. In Celia’s House, the reader is spared the scene of the expected heir finding out their beliefs are only castles in the air but I do rather wish we could have seen the Maurice Dunnes finding out the news versus just the devoted servant saying oh dear me, how upset they was and now they are gone. The similar scene in Miss Buncle Married is quite good and you can almost see the disappointed would be heirs forehead veins sticking out and the handkerchiefs being crumpled in rage.

What’s also gone? Remembering the book is called Celia’s House. Yes, it does get mentioned the young Celia is the true heir to Dunnian versus her brother Mark and we see her as a small child adoring and loving the dear old place but the bulk of the story belongs to Mark, his failed romance with gold digger Tessa and distant cousin Deb. It’s a shame because D.E. Stevenson leaves some nice little crumbs to imply the young Celia is the reincarnation of her great-great-aunt Celia. The young Mark sees a ghost which an old portraits implies is the late Miss Dunne. Alice (Mrs Humphrey Dunne) has a vision/visitation from the late Miss Dunne the night before Celia is born. The newborn Celia seems knowing of her surroundings from birth and is the spit of Miss Dunne. And for heavens sake, the end? Oh come on! Then again I would also love to see more of the late Miss Celia Dunne’s story too.

Given that Celia’s House was written in wartime and if I’m not mistaken had a limited print life due to wartime printing restrictions, could this have made D.E. Stevenson wrap up her novel sooner than the story should have been wrapped up? The ending, while quite heartwarming and lovely, feels very abrupt. Even one little chapter more would have balanced the story quite nicely.

Hopefully, given the D.E. Stevenson rediscovery and the last reprinting of Celia’s House being the Holt, Rinehart and Winston  1977 edition, perhaps Sourcebooks Landmark could try and acquire the rights to add Celia’s House to their D.E. Stevenson reprints. Even with it’s flaws (more reincarnated Celia, less Edith please because I don’t care a fig for her), Celia’s House is a charming book crying out to be read by more than just D.E. Stevenson fanatics.