In every civilization founded on landed property, an abundant literature sings of the poetry and virtues of the home; in Henry Bordeaux's novel precisely titled La maison (The Home), the home encapsulates all the bourgeois values: faithfulness to the past, patience, economy, caution, love of family, of native soil, and so forth; the home's champions are often women, since it is their task to ensure the happiness of the familial group; as in the days when thedomina sat in the atrium, their role is to be 'mistress of the house.'