The final novel in Antonia White’s autobiographical Clara Batchelor sequence. It completes the sequence begun with Frost in May, The Lost Traveller and The Sugar House, though it can be read independently.

We now know Clara well, and here we see her through the years after her disastrous marriage. Returning to her parents’ home offers shelter, but also restores the old machinery of guilt and obedience; an affair promises escape, but Clara’s sense of self is already under extraordinary strain. 

White writes psychological collapse from this terrifying point of closeness, where the every day feelings for Clara, the shame, desire, religion, family expectation, failed intimacy, the demand to remain coherent for other people, become claustrophobic and yet relatable at the same time. Sure, the result is a novel about mental crisis, but equally about the conditions under which a woman is permitted to possess a private interior life at all. 

The Dial Press, New York, 1981. First printing of this Dial Press / Virago Modern Classics edition. Paperback, with introduction by Carmen Callil. Light shelf wear and edge rubbing to covers; minor handling marks. Internally clean and unmarked; binding firm. Very good condition.