Way of Life

New York/London: D. Appleton-Century Company. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1940. First Edition. Hardcover. [light wear to bottom edges and spine ends, slight fading to cloth at top of spine; jacket lightly soiled, tiny puncture-tear in spine (internally tape-repaired), a couple of little edge-nicks]. A novel of English society, "peopled with a group of characters as fresh and original as the story itself" -- all English types except for a "crafty Italian peasant," Rosa Moro, "the villainess of the piece but not very villainous. This London-born author's first novel, "The Ants' Nest," was well-reviewed in 1938, but this one (her second) seems to have also been her last; given the dates, and her stated profession at the time of the book's publication (she was "correspondent to the Italian Riviera to The London Times"), one naturally wonders if she made it through the war OK. .