DRESS REHEARSAL

by Monica Stirling ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A gentle, guessably autobiographical account of British boarding shool life which runs a counterpoint of comedy against the dislocation of Jocelyn Melisande Julie Scott, the child of a repertory actor and actress, in a firmly traditional school. For Heath Towers, and its character-building properties as expressed in frequent encyclicals about poise and fair play or served up in a pudding they refer to as ""shape"", is run by a Miss Willis (""the original remedy against love"" -- Jocelyn's father) who looks down on the unfortunate, unorthodox background of Jocelyn -- and her younger sister Henriette. Leading drama to the days is the expulsion of an older girl -- under the stigma of ""soppiness"" (she had had a rendezvous with a young man), the play attendance of the French circle, under Jocelyn's misleading guidance, of Dumas : instead of Dumas the holidays -- in Germany and Naples, and the final release to a cosmopolitan life abroad and Henriette's debut in the theatre.... A memoir, ingratiating rather than important, of impressions which is the backward glance lose nothing of their ingenuous originality and guiety.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1952

Categories: FICTION