SYLVIA LYNDON: A Novel of England

She dates unforgivably, it seems. Here is a novel of England, virtually unaware of hovering shadows, although the period is fairly recent. The characters are for the most part new, though some of her old characters are background figures. The story itself centers around a spinster (she acts 56, looks 36, is 46) who is dissatisfied with her lot, and plays with the idea of getting a country home and adopting a small boy who needs a parent. Her doctor hasn't taken time out to realize that he is most appropriately in love with her, and he prescribes country drives with a gentleman chauffeur, a foster son, so much younger that he -- and everyone else -- is shocked when the two fall madly in love, and marry. The marriage works, for about a year, then splits on the rock of age and ambition -- and the doctor comes into his own.