Ambientada en el Londres de entreguerras, la novela narra la historia de Portia Quayne, una huérfana de dieciséis años, que, tras la muerte de su madre, es acogida por su medio hermano Thomas y por la mujer de este, Anna, que llevan una vida lujosa aunque emocionalmente estéril.

Love the way this lady describes people. Describing the words and actions of middle-class English people who take themselves so seriously, with comical words, you get such a clear image of them, it makes me laugh out loud. ( )

This is the story of a 16 year old orphan who comes to live with her fashionable half brother and his wife. The girl is completely emotionally needy and innocent but her brother and sister-in-law are completely unable to comfort her, and she becomes romantically involved with a cad.

Throughout the novel there is this incredible suspense about whether she will make a disastrous decision to consummate their relationship. I won't disclose what happens, but the tension this uncertainty creates leads you to focus on tiny, very finely wrought descriptions of social interaction and expression. Comparisons with Henry James are entirely appropriate.

Although there is an undertone about the loss of romantic naivete and trust, I think there is another interesting theme about the perverse relationship between writers and the people they write about. Early in the novel, the sister-in-law discovers the girl's diary and eagerly consumes her descriptions about herself. Though the sister-in-law laughs at the school-girl observations and concerns, she also feels judged and spied upon. I think Elizabeth Bowen was commenting on writing about people you know can poison relationships.

I think I like this book more the more I think about it. ( )

This was a sadly cynical and very aptly named novel. Portia, a sixteen year old orphan who is just beginning to search for understanding of what love means, finds herself living with her half-brother, Thomas, and his wife, Anna. While Portia studies Anna to see what being a woman should be, Anna dislikes Portia, primarily because Portia is too honest an observer. All the adults in this book live in a kind of masquerade of life, with a cloud of dishonesty hovering over them constantly, while Portia is unschooled in deception and fails to understand that almost no one can be taken at face value.

Along the way, Portia opens her heart to a young man who has been present because of his attempts to woo Anna. This is English society at its worst, a world of sexual innuendo and flirtatious games in which everyone is hurt. Poor Portia is like a lamb at slaughter, and everyone seems to feel free to play with her feelings and sensibilities. There is the added sorrow of knowing this girl has just lost her mother and is in a strange place that makes some of their actions seem excessively cruel and unfeeling.

Portia’s encounters with life living in hotels with her mother, Irene; living in London with Thomas and Anna, and living for the spring at the beach in Searle with Anna’s former governess, give her an overview of different classes and strata and seem to indicate to the reader that love is fairly non-existent. You trust others at your own peril.

This book had moments in which I was sure it would be a 5-star read for me. But, in the end, the ending was somehow unsatisfactory. I understood the point being made, and perhaps it could not have ended differently, but it felt somewhat abrupt and incomplete. I have been mulling it overnight and this morning, and I think we are meant to feel the bleakness of Portia’s position and perhaps that this is life and more story would yield no different outcome.

I have perhaps said too much in this review. I never like to give away too much. But, I am sincerely wishing I had read this with at least one other person because there is so much here to grapple with and I’m unsure that I have skimmed the surface, let alone plumbed the depths. If you like a book that makes you puzzle over life, this one will. ( )

Een pocket uit ma's boekenkast, geschreven in de jaren dertig, over een 16-jarig meisje dat na de dood van haar moeder een jaar gaat wonen bij haar halfbroer en schoonzus. Ze wordt getolereerd maar ook gezien als een lastig portret. Het leukste deel van het boek is als ze naar zee gaat, omdat Thomas en Anna met vakantie gaan. Daar heeft ze contacten met leeftijdgenoten. Haar verliefdheid op Eddie speelt een belangrijke rol, hoewel je direct al ziet dat dat een flapdrol is. Ik denk dat tante Iet dit boek aan ma heeft gegeven. Het is een beetje traag, soms filosofisch en er gebeurt vooral onderhuids van alles. ( )