As a novelist, Rebecca West resembles Cordelia, one of the characters in her own book, The Fountain Overflows, a hopelessly unmusical girl in a musical family, whose unflagging industry at violin practice produces not one note that satisfies her talented sisters and mother. Miss West inflicts on the reader the same painful sensation that the Aubrey family felt when poor Cordelia sawed away so indefatigably: why can't she realize she has no gift for this sort of thing?

The intention is clear enough. Miss West wished to write a big, heartwarming novel of Edwardian family life, to invite the reader into the Aubrey's chaotic but wonderful household, where he would be caught up in their love for each other, the display of their talents, the frequent near-disasters.

But the novel of nostalgic sentimentality depends upon the keeping of the reader's sympathy. He must never cease to accept the...