BLAIR MARRIMAN

Pursuing the indirect- rather than direct- consequences of a heartless- rather than ruthless- woman, this tells of Blair Marriman, assured, attractive, self-sufficient and self-satisfied. Partly scarred by her mother's hellfire prudery and by the loss of the one boy she loved, Blair marries Rex Vinton, gentle, generous, rich. But Rex, defeated and eventually destroyed by Blair's coldness, suicides and Blair, with his millions, establishes herself successfully in social and intellectual circles, but refuses all closer contacts. Only when past forty is she attracted for the first time to a man- and after failing in her efforts to make him- does she realize the barren, bitter life she has created... The montage here, which is moneyed, the more than superficial pursuit of character genesis, makes this a fairly classy cut of feminine fiction.