About the book: 1951 / This well-crafted novel combines a wide variety of virtues. The plot contains, let's say, very English eccentricities that hide a completely un-English cruelty and unscrupulousness. The modern reader should note that for its time this is a rather shocking work, and all its horror falls on a typical Englishwoman - Thomasina, who until the very end refuses to recognize the real meaning of everything that happened. This time we are not talking about an ordinary murder, but, in fact, about a moral danger to a healthy way of life!