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An unlikely, but irresistible, love affair provides the framework for this absorbing novel of passion and solitude. Quiet, aloof and consciously solitary, Emmeline is unprepared for the violence of her attraction to Markie; but once she has succumbed to it, she far surpasses him in the depth and generosity of her surrender. The affairs of Cecilia, Emmeline's vivacious and gregarious sister-in-law, provide a sparkling counterpoint to Miss Bowen's main theme. There is also the girls' worrisome aunt, Lady Waters, a character Evelyn Waugh would be proud to claim, who "enlarged her own life into ripples of apprehension on everybody's behalf." Cool, clear, and wonderfully witty, To the North nonetheless combines passion and perception in the unique manner familiar to admirers of The Death of the Heart and The Heat of the Day. |
