MONICA

The first American edition of a once-notorious 1930 novel by eminent Welsh writer Lewis (1893--1985), whose only foray into prose fiction was this Bovary-an tale of an unhappy housewife sustained, then betrayed, by her overheated romantic imagination. Lewis's portrayals of the frustrated Monica MacEwan and her doltish though well-meaning husband Bob, told from their own and several neighboring perspectives, are notable both for their sexual frankness and their author's masterly use of sensuous imagery. But Lewis is also an obtrusive writer whose digressions and summaries both vitiate this novel's artfulness and make it unlikely that Monica will ever be seen as anything more than an unusually interesting period piece.