AS FOR THE WOMAN

As for Mr. Iles, his is as shrewd, as witty, and as malicious a tongue as ever was in a cheek, as he spoofs the love affair of a frail, effete young boy in the trammels of a charming vampire. Alan Littlewood, Oxford boy, is a girlish, delicate sonneteer, hiding a deep insecurity and ill case under the pomposity and affectations of youth. He goes to summer with a Dr. Pawle, when a t.b. patch on one lung is discovered, and Mrs. Pawle, obviously to all concerned save Alan, executes a fine seduction. In the background is Dr. Pawle, scornful of the foppish Alan, scornful of his unrestrained, lightheaded wife, striking back. It's a cruel book, not morbid, but definitely nasty and discomfiting -- with almost a surfeit of wry irony and malice. A good name still, but for a carefully selected market.