A Fearful Joy

Tabitha Baskett is seduced by an engaging scoundrel named Bonser who deserts her when she is pregnant.

She is taken under the wing of a businessman who is also a patron of the arts; and after his death, by a millionaire.

Finally she returns to Bonser who marries her.

In charting the life of Tabitha, Cary has written one of the most enchantingly comic and life-enhancing stories of modern fiction and a vivid history of the first half of the twentieth century.