Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE JOYFUL DELANEYS by Hugh Walpole

THE JOYFUL DELANEYS

By

Pub Date: Sept. 23rd, 1938
Publisher: Doubleday, Doran

This picks up loose threads from Captain Nicholas, but can scarcely be considered a sequel, In fact, though many familiar characters cross the pages briefly, the central figures, -- the delightful Delaney family, old Charles Willoughby, Lady Millie, and others, are newcomers. A distinctly sentimental side excursion for Mr. Walpole, lacking the quality of his better work, but with much of the same flavor of looking at a section of London from the inside. The story revolves around the fate of the house the Delaneys love, the house which must be sacrificed if any of the impecunious tenants fail them (which they do, in rapid succession). Romance -- a last flight -- touches both Fred and Meg, and leaves then more deeply in love than before. And their children begin to grow up, Bullock in loving and protecting little Lizzie Coventry, Kitty in disillusionment over her own bit of romance. And the house is saved -- in true fairy tale manner. An overlong and rather shallow book, but enough of the Walpole flavor to save it from dullness.