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I found Macaulay's 1926 novel at Arcadia on St Michael's St. for 75p. I shall add this to my growing Penguin stash and put it alongside Macaulay's World My Wilderness. If I could find a Penguin edition of the Towers of Trebizond, I would probably dislocate my back in a spasm of glee.

First sentence:

A Mr. Dobie, a clergyman, wearying of his job, reliquished it, ostensibly on the grounds that he did not care to bury dissenters or baptise illegitimate infants, but in reality beacuse he was tired of being so busy, so sociable, and so conversational, of attending parish meetings, of sitting on committees, calling on parishioners and asking them how they did - an inquiry the answer to which he was wholly indifferent.

Comments

Ian Wolcott said…
Just today, in fact, I picked up a used hardcover copy of Rose Macaulay's Pleasure of Ruins, which I'd been looking for for years.
November 9, 2011 at 2:14 PM
Shelf of One's Own said…
Don't have that one, Ian. Dead jealous. Although I have got her letters to Father whatsisname, and those are rather good. Have you seen'em?
November 15, 2011 at 1:46 AM
Ian Wolcott said…
I haven't. Checking her bibliography on Wikipedia, I see there's an awful lot of Dame Rose's stuff I've never seen.

Still haven't opened Pleasure of Ruins yet. Am saving it as antidote for one of those down-in-the-dumps sort of days.
November 18, 2011 at 2:52 PM
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