The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West

Papa, as I knew, was capable of forgetting the fact of our existence at moments when he should have been most careful to remember it, but from time to time suffered agonies because he realised that we were never going to be presented at court and that the Irish landowners who might have been our husbands could in all probability never hear of our existence; and Mamma often surveyed the social stagnation of Lovegrove and never at any time saw a professor of Greek improvising iambic pentameters as he ladled out egg-nog at midnight, or Hans Van Bulow dropping in for supper.  They had thought we had better realise the worst.  We thought it not bad at all.
-- Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows, (Virago Press, 1957)

The Fountain Overflows is a marvelous, beautifully written novel based on Rebecca West's Edwardian childhood (West was born in 1892).  The family consists of mother Clare, father Piers, daughters Rose (the narrator), Mary and Cordelia and son Richard Quin.  Mamma, former concert pianist, holds the family together while Papa is always changing jobs and writing political pamphlets. The children barely know they are poor; though their mother dresses in shabby clothes they always have a servant and plenty of Shakespeare and music, with intention of going on to musical careers, though older sister Cordelia gets a head start on the concert stage, even though Mary, Rose and Mamma think she is the one child without musical talent.  The novel follows the family for several years, including the murder trial of a friend's mother who is saved from the gallows by Papa, who eventually deserts the family.  There are wonderful details about family life, from detailed discussions about nature and the different elements of every season to the difficulties of learning new piano pieces by Mozart and Beethoven and the changing styles in clothes and furniture, which Rose recalls in perceptive detail.