THE SIRENS LET HIM GO

An Italian idyll, set in and around Naples, is concerned with the romantic and mercenary designs of Count Vicopugni, his rich American wife, Abby, who now seems to be broke, her lover- Renzo Bodino- a playwright who finds the source of his creative powers in many affairs- most recently that with Ileana, a saucy and seductive tramp, and Joseph Fletcher, the young American innocent who is sent to Abby with a letter from his father-a one-time admirer of hers. Joseph is to spend a summer of classical studies on the money left him by his grandfather for his education- but Abby is to see that it will not be academic. To discourage Renzo's interest in Ileana, she encourages Joseph's- but he is too serious in his intentions (marriage) toward the girl and then must be disengaged.... There is pleasant scenery from the castle to the caves of Cumae, an air of sophisticated diversion, but it is so protracted that the young man's release is also the reader's.