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When her comic invention flags, Oates offers the fruit of research into the mores of the late 19th century middle classes in America. Her novel is dense with such tiresome detail as the Zinn family's favorite books (Blanche of the Brandywine and Polly Peablossom's Wedding), songs (What Is Home Without a Mother?) and underarm deodorant (chloride of lime and powdered salicylic acid). Oates' heroines quote liberally from the world's worst verse, culled by the author from such works as The Ladies' Wreath, a Magazine Devoted to Literature, Industry and Religion. But what the women in A Bloodsmoor Romance seem to do most is knit, embroider and crochet. So assiduous is one character that she produces an antimacassar "somewhat above the conventional in length, being 1,358 yards, or some three-quarters of a mile .. ."—the perfect symbol for the futility and tedium of Oates' novel. —By Patricia Blake