THE WICKED PAVILLION

by Dawn Powell ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A indulged in by the habitues of the Cafe Julien, a restaurant of quiet distinction off Washington Square, is overheard and transcribed with remorseless accuracy and provides a novel of no particular purpose over and above its display of acerb brilliance. This is the fringe of social and aesthetic fashion, of lives which are parasitic, profligate, and precarious in their small worlds which know no loyalties- only the solidarity of defeat- and which depend on the unsteady virtues of money and success. Among them are Dalzell Sloane, a painter, who now faces the ironic finality of failure as his friend, Marius, who had been lucky enough to have died at the right moment, becomes a posthumous celebrity; Ricky Prescott, haunted by the memory of Ellenora with whom he had had an uneven romance; Elsie Hookley, a renegade Bostonian, and a quite overwhelming woman now engaged in launching the marriage of Jerry Dulaine to a diplomat; Jerry, a girl who liked her good times, but now faces their diminishing returns; Wharton, Elsie's brother, aggravated by her belligerent Bohemianism and his much younger wife's new freedom; etc. etc. All these make up an aggregate of lives which are amusing, worldly, vain, -- the victims of the ""shoulder-chips and spiritual ulcers"" of their perishable desires and ambitions- and the objects of pity as well as malice. For her audience, an entertainment which if deadly is never dull.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1954

Categories: FICTION