HAPPY RETURN

by Angela Thirkell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 22, 1952

The kind hearts and coronets -- and hardy perennials they-(by now in a monkey- puzzle of genealogy) is the 23rd of the Barsetshire series of county life. Building up to Christmas, 1951, and the New Year, the whole crew is more comfortable that They are of the past, that Mr. Churchill is at the helm and that there is a happy return, not to the past, but to a time when They do not dominate. Amongst all the social interchange of teas and meals and large and small parties, Francis Brandon is told off for his unpleasant treatment of his wife; Eric Swan, a master of the Priory Preparatory School, loses his heart to Grace Grantly, but she becomes engaged to young Lord Lufton; and Charles Belton, long engaged to Clarissa Graham, takes a decisive step and marries her by special license. The young Lord's widowed mother comes out of her depression; young cleric Parkinson bands them all together when his wife is in trouble; mothers eye their young marrieds for granny-fodder; and the Marlings, Warings, Winters, Adamses et al make their required appearances in the accustomed, interrupted, garrulous to acid procession,- of tradition preserved, the deeper decencies observed and the whole sad distraction of food, taxes and domestics. Tremulous to testy, still.

Pub Date: Sept. 22, 1952

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1952

Categories: FICTION