Fackham Hall
A new servant embarks on an unlikely relationship with the youngest daughter of a prominent English family. Simultaneously, rivalries are spilling over in the Davenport family, led by the Lord and Lady as they also weather the epic failure of the wedding of their eldest daughter to her caddish cousin.
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?