Ten top British country house novels

At the Waterstones blog, Mark Skinner tagged ten of the best country house novels, including:

Atonement
Ian McEwan

A masterly evocation of the mores and morals of the 1930s upper class, McEwan’s rich, character-driven narrative examines the nature of guilt and the onerous quest for redemption. A moving love story brimming with repressed passion and festering jealousy, Atonement is a period novel of supreme acuity.

Read about another entry on the list.

Atonement also appears on Julia Dahl's top ten list of books about miscarriages of justice, Tim Lott's top ten list of summers in fiction, Ellen McCarthy's list of six favorite books about weddings and marriage, David Treuer's six favorite books list, Kirkus Reviews's list of eleven books whose final pages will shock you, Nicole Hill's list of eleven books in which the main character dies, Isla Blair's six best books list, Jessica Soffer's top ten list of book endings, Jane Ciabattari's list of five masterpieces of fiction that also worked as films, and on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best birthday parties in literature, ten of the best misdirected messages in literature, ten of the best scenes on London Underground, ten of the best breakages in literature, ten of the best weddings in literature, and ten of the best identical twins in fiction. It is one of Stephanie Beacham's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue