THE LONELY LADY OF DULWICHMaurice BaringKnopf ($2).
Maurice Baring is old-school without being oldfashioned. Urbane without pomp, sentimental but only sensibly so, he has the happy faculty of appearing as a citizen of the world without showing off the labels on his baggage. His latest novel, The Lonely Lady of Dulwich, is a little book (150 pages) but it compasses a full human career without skimping. Deliberately, nostalgically reminiscent, it has the small fragrance of an old sachet.
Zita was a Victorian beauty who married a solid Englishman, a gentleman though a banker. He...