The Joy of Living [published in the U.K. as "A Daughter in Revolt"]

New York/London: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Very Good. 1922. First American Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [ex-circulating library book (marked as such with a single stamp on the ffep reading "Royal Court Circulating Library"), light external soiling, spine slightly turned] Popular fiction about a feisty young Englishwoman, Aimee (subject of the frontispiece portrait), who persuades a cousin to impersonate her for the purposes of spending a month with a strict aunt -- who's never seen Aimee, you see, so of course this works just fine. In the meanwhile, Aimee gallivants about and gets involved with Billy, a young American fellow who's promoting a new type of motorcycle, called the Flying Sphinx; he persuades her to join him to help promote the vehicle as "the finest mount for a girl yet put on the market." Various plot twists involve the cousin's romance with the aunt's nephew, notorious motorcycle thieves, stolen emeralds, mistaken identities, and so forth, with both Billy and Aimee ultimately becoming employed in her aunt's household, as chauffeur and maid, respectively. Also published under the title "A Daughter in Revolt" in England by Herbert Jenkins in 1922, and filmed (also in the U.K.) until title in 1928 -- a forgotten (and probably forgettable) silent film that has the one small distinction of having provided the first screen role for Hermione Baddeley, who played "Calamity Kate," one of the aforementioned motorcycle thieves. (Gowing published nine novels between 1920 and 1932, but this was apparently the only one that ever served as the basis for a movie.) An early instance of motorcycle-themed fiction. .