Love Unknown

This delightful comedy of manners mingles "the dream of Romance" with the realities of selfishness and sin. As the "prehistory" explains, three young women once shared a London flat for a year and became friends for life. Monica Cunningham, always a Plain Jane bohemian type, eventually came into some money and grew "accustomed to solitude" in Paris; Belinda, the wildest one, is, by the start of the novel, on to her third or so husband; and Richeldis, the pretty daughter of a prominent lady publisher, is happily married to the dishy Simon Longsworth, "the Man of her Dreams." It turns out, though, that plain Monica shared that dream, and the seemingly ideal couple isn't doing all that well, as Monica discovers some 20 years later when she runs into Simon and his young mistress on a jaunt to Fountainbleau. Soon Simon and Monica, in the throes of passion, with her acting very "un-Monica-ish," explore "those mysterious Things of Love." Simon begins to behave like a beast to Richeldis, who's distracted both by her fourth child, a mildly retarded lad, and her mother, Madge, who goes from slightly senile to positively mad. Meanwhile, Simon's divorced brother, Bartle, a lapsed Anglican priest, has worries of his own. Not only must this befuddled dreamer take care of his brother's mad mother-in-law, but he must also resolve the tension between his love for a young dental hygienist, who helped cure his chronic halitosis, and his renewed faith. Crisp and clever entertainment.


Genre: Literary Fiction