1951 "First American Edition" stated on copyright page; Alfred A. Knopf publishers, New York; hardbound; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket good with minor edge wear and spine fading/speckling; embossed decor and Elizabeth Taylor signature on front cover.
 
Description -
The novel is set in England between WWI and WWII and focused on the characters of Harriet Claridge and Vesey Macmillan. The novel explores their relationship, its effect on those around them, as they seek each other's love for more than 25 years.
 
The story starts in their childhood. Harriet is painfully inarticulate, while Vesey is defensive and irritating; yet they are drawn to one another. When Vesey attends Oxford, they are separated, but she cherishes his photograph and waits for him to write. But he doesn't, so Harriet marries Charles, a rather dull country solicitor, and have a daughter, while Vesey becomes an actor.
 
Skipping ahead 15 years, nothing has changed greatly. The latter portion of the novel is concerned with the rather pitiful, often lovely, and completely ineffectual affair they embark on. Their intrigue could not possibly be less of a 'grand passion.' When it ends as the reader knows it must, the affair is not completed; it is just forced to stop.