THE ONLY NELLIE FAYLE

by Bertram Bloch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 1960

Nellie Fayle, a pixy child of the slums, finds herself the guest of Desmond and Emmet Comfort in their Long Island summer home. Here the two Englishmen scrutinize the girl in an effort to decide whether she is suitable to play the role of Joan of Arc in Desmond's new play. Having written several failures after a long string of successes, Desmond is so infatuated with Nellie that he decides, when her unsuitability becomes obvious, to rewrite the play around her. This he does to the benefit of his script and the bewilderment of his younger brother who is also in love with Nellie. The self-centered Desmond, upon realizing that Nellie, who would willingly have slept with or married him for the sake of her career, is now genuinely in love with Emmet, vows to destroy the play and her. But Nellie's canny wit rescues the play and guarantees her stardom. A curiously Victorian atmosphere hovers about this novel of modern show people and a veneer of detachment conceals the essentially sentimental quality of the story. A romance which is neither romantic enough to be moving nor acid enough to be amusing, this is a rather vitiated woman's novel which imposes no strain and occasionally entertains.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1960

Categories: FICTION