The Osbornes

E. F. Benson was one of the finest writers of the Edwardian era, documenting the inner circles of high society with such clarity and wit his books are still a joy to read today. Including a biography of the author.

The Osbornes considers a question that has echoed throughout English literary history almost from when it began: what happens when you love outside your own class? From Pamela to Lady Chatterley’s Lover and onwards, this topic has (in its different forms) been a peculiarly English preoccupation. And it is at the forefront of The Osbornes, where Dora falls in love with the Adonis-like Claude. Claude’s family is the Osbornes of the title – nouveau riche, and not ‘quite quite’.