Period passepartout, with contemporary illustrations, brightens the romancing of Fanny Harcourt and Emily Dacre as their six weeks in London for Victoria's Coronation acquaints them with their husbands-to-be. Fanny tells of the sights and sounds, the cultural samplings of art galleries, salons and music, of the ways in which her father -- and her best friend, Emily, --assaulted her fine sensibilities and of the excitement of DeLacy Vavasour's attentions. It is Henry Darnley, with his Heart of Oak, who saves her father from the shame of ruin and who claims her blushes for his own, while Emily annexes Fanny's brother, Ned. The proprieties -- and the prudery- to be taken with a light heart- and completely divorced from Thirkell's county chronicles. English publication in 1937 -- now issued here for the celebrations.

Graced with Thirkell's trademark dry humor and illustrated with newspaper clippings, engravings and paintings of the day (but burdened with references to politics and books now obscure), this deft, modest novel makes a quirky addition to the reprinted Thirkell oeuvre.