(2 of 2)
Wigs & Tories. But even Linda's ducal grand passion conforms to the general tone of The Pursuit of Love—which plays on the surface of life so wittily and deftly that it makes far better fiction than, say, the leaden soundings of James T. Farrell. It excels in fluent, natural descriptions of English country life (that peculiar combination of rigorous and relaxed living), in its feminine lightness, and in its sharp summings-up of occasional characters—such as prematurely balding Lord Fort William, whose "hair seemed to be slipping off backwards, like an eiderdown in the night," and Linda's newborn infant, which lay "deep down among the frills and lace . . . a howling orange in a fine black wig."