AT MRS. LIPPINCOTE'S

by Elizabeth Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Subtle, stylised, and rather special social comedy which, lacking any particular pattern or purpose, tells of a year spent in the rented house of Mrs. Lippincote by Julia Davenant and her family. Julia is vague, aimless, unpredictable, cultivating her highly individual moods and reactions, charming. Roddy, her husband, is conventional, often annoyed by Julia's non-conformity, often excluding her in his R.A.F. duties and social obligations. In addition, there is Oliver, their seven year old son, who shares his mother's imaginative proclivities, and Eleanor, Roddy's spinster sister, the thorn in Julia's flesh. Few events- as such- occur here; rather is it the reflection, through Julia, of occasional social interchanges, of Eleanor's communist acquaintances, of Julia's effect upon Roddy's Wing Commander, and finally of the nervous friction which prevails between Julia and Roddy and Eleanor, and which culminates in Eleanor's spiteful revelation of Roddy's infidelity. An expose of human frailities and failures, an exercise in subtlety, this is not strictly a novel and only for discriminating tastes.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 1844083098

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1946

Categories: FICTION