When old Jehosophat Trevett leaves a will dividing his property equally amongst his nephew and two nieces, on the condition that they live together for three months on his farm outside of the small village of Killbuck, he sets in motion events that will bring together a family long estranged. The eldest, Mrs. Hester Wilmer, ashamed of her humble roots, leads a life of social pretension in Buffalo, and only comes in order to spite her social club, be revenged on her husband and daughter, and claim the entire inheritance for herself. She brings with her Enid, the daughter who never seems to appreciate the many social benefits her mother has worked so hard to see that she enjoys. Tommy Todd, the middle child, long since sunk into a life of crime, is unable to come, but his long-time friend Dan Dooley brings his innocent nineteen-year-old daughter, Cindy. The youngest child, Miss Jennie Todd, desperately unhappy in her life as a Housemother at a girls' school near Cleveland, jumps at the chance to get away and be (as she imagines) by herself. Thrown into this mix is Gary Norbeck, the young artist who had been living on Josh Trevett's property, and who inherited an acre of his woodland, and Wickford Middleton, Killbuck's only lawyer, and the executor of the Trevett estate...

Published in 1953, The Inheritors is the seventh of Jane Abbott's books that I have read, and the first that is intended for adult readers, rather than children or adolescents. Although there were aspects of it that felt rather dated - in particular, the social climbing concerns of Hester - for the most part I thought that the personal and familial issues raised by Abbott in her story felt quite contemporary. Some of the developments were easy to spot - I predicted one of the two romances from the first chapter - but others came as something of a surprise. I fully expected all of the characters to come to a better understanding of themselves and each other, and while for the most part this was true, there were some notable exceptions. Hester never accepts Cindy as her niece, for instance. My personal favorite, of the characters, was Jennie, and I really enjoyed watching her unfold and grow in her new environment. I also appreciated the sections from Hester's perspective, because while I didn't find her a sympathetic figure, I thought Abbott captured her internal struggles quite well. I was reminded, while reading, of her The Young Dalfreys, which displayed some of the same psychological insight into the characters. All in all, I found this an enjoyable read, and would certainly read more of Abbott's adult output. ( )

Josh Trevett left an unusual will--leaving his country house to his 2 nieces and nephew to share. Each gets his/her own wing and must live there for 3 months to inherit.

The inheritors of the title have little in common, despite being from the same family. Jenny is the old maid schoolteacher, sick of her limited life and too shy to speak up. Hester is more concerned with a convenient place to escape from a social disappointment and sheltering her daughter from "undesirables." Nephew Tommy is in trouble with the law again, but to keep his daughter out of it, he sends her to the farm in his place.

So who will stick it out to the end? Will they really be able to get along, stuck in that house together?

I enjoyed this book. It is a bit old-fashioned, perhaps, in the restrictive social views of Hester, but the complicated family dynamics are very much what people face today.

CMB ( )