Cousin Rosamund - Hardcover

Rebecca West (1892–1983) was a novelist, biographer, journalist, and critic. She published eight novels in addition to her masterpiece Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, for which she made several trips to the Balkans. Following World War II, West also published two books on the relation of the individual to the state, called The Meaning of Treason and A Train of Powder.

These previously unpublished chapters complete the trilogy begun in The Fountain Overflows and continued in the posthumous This Real Night ( LJ 3/1/85). Rose Aubrey picks up her tale in the 1920s, after the deaths of her mother and brother. Though still troubled in spirit, Rose and her sister Mary are at last secure financially as established concert pianists. Sought after by society, they prefer clinging to those they have loved since childhood. They are shaken by the loss of their cherished cousin Rosamund, who leaves England after her inexplicable marriage to a rich vulgarian. Rose comes close to breaking down but is restored by unexpected romance and a happy marriage. West's impressive style once again makes up for the overall unfinished quality of the narrative, and readers intrigued by the earlier volumes will not want to miss this one, nor West's synopsis of the entire Aubrey saga, reprinted in the afterword. Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
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