Country Houses, Stately Homes: The Tallis House between Tradition and Change in Ian McEwan’s «Atonement»

Abstract

This paper sets out to investigate the representations of the Tallis house in Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001). The Tallises’ country house, one of the main story settings, undergoes a significant transformation over time, assuming a different role and function in each part of the novel. Englishness, decadence, bucolic nostalgia and the idealised visions of England as a rural, pastoral idyll can be numbered among the ingredients that McEwan blends in the depiction of this mansion and of its surrounding estate: not only do they constitute an integral part of its foundations, but also of its evolution on both the fictional and historical levels, since they contribute to creating the myth that still characterises the famous stately homes of England.