DIANA WAKEFIELD

A love story, which surrounds a conflict between character and tradition with a fair amount of emotion, and which traces some moments of lonely and difficult decision for Diana Wakefield, who had become the second wife of an older man and had inherited not only the interfering image of his first wife, but also his strong respect for the family estate. But over and above her deference for Charles, Diana faces the resentment of her family- in that she'd ""married beyond herself"" as well as the vigilant disapproval of his, and facing lack of sympathy on all sides, she is easily susceptible to the attraction of Nigel, an artist, who had served under Charles during the war. Their love for each other withstands the onus of guilt and calumny and separation, but it is Charles' suicide, prompted by another motive, which gives Diana the sense of painful responsibility which she must exorcise-before she is free for Nigel.... For the women, a story which you can recognize rather than remember, in a treatment which if not unbridled is certainly freely vocalized.