Henry Green's Loving opens with "Once Upon a day..." and closes with "...and lived happily ever after", but it is not a fairy tale.

The novel takes place in the castle home of the rich Tenant family, but the story focuses on the servants.

It is the middle of World War II and the butler has just passed away. Footman Charley Raunce is promoted to butler, so the Tenants stop calling him "Albert" (which wasn't his name anyway) and start calling him Mr. Raunce. The position goes to his head and some of the other servants resent him for it, but it does not deter Edith the maid from falling in love with him.

Then the servants catch one of the Tenants in an adulterous act and Mrs. Tenant loses a valuable ring and the servants are left alone in the house for days and the ring is found and people argue and they laugh and they gossip and they fall in love.

"Loving" is just a story about ordinary life among a particular class of people in a particular place and time. Nothing much happens. The War rages throughout Europe, but not in neutral Ireland. Instead of action, we get a lot of dialogue and a peek into personalities and prejudices (everyone seems to dislike and distrust the Irish and the Catholics) and lonely people craving affection and the tension between the ruling class and serving class.

It is a small story, but it's a good one.

While not a fairy tale and not the classic that some claim, I enjoyed Mr. Green's novel.