The Margery Sharp Collection Volume Two

Book excerpt: This New York Times–bestselling trilogy follows an artistic girl as she grows up to become a painter—from the “highly gifted” author of Cluny Brown (The New Yorker). A master of the twentieth-century comedy of manners, British author Margery Sharp has been praised as “one of the most gifted writers of comedy” (Chicago Daily News) and “a wonderful entertainer” (The New Yorker). In her New York Times bestseller, The Eye of Love, she introduced nine-year-old artist Martha, a character so fascinating Sharp continued her story into adulthood in two beautifully wrought follow-up novels. “[Martha] offers a completely unique portrait of female genius, in all its single-minded dedication and selfishness” (The New York Times). The Eye of Love: They met at the Chelsea Arts Ball: He came as a brown paper parcel, she as a Spanish dancer. Dolores and Harry have been passionately in love ever since. But ten years later, during the Great Depression, Harry must marry his colleague’s daughter to rescue his nearly bankrupt business. Yet with help from Dolores’s artistically inclined, orphaned nine-year-old niece, Martha, the couple may still find their way to happily ever after, in this New York Times bestseller. “This postwar novel is one of her best.” —The New York Times “A double-plotted . . . masterpiece with a great deal of wit and not an ounce of sentimentality.” —The Guardian Martha in Paris: Now eighteen, Martha is blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime: an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris to study painting. Despite her single-minded pursuit of creativity, she attracts an admirer in the City of Light—not a debonair Frenchman, but a homesick British bank clerk. When an unexpected complication arises, Martha deals with the consequences in her usual sensible, independent fashion. “Chalk up another for Margery Sharp’s collection of offbeat heroines and outrageously funny novels.” —Newark Evening News Martha, Eric, and George: In the decade since her time in Paris, Martha has become a successful artist in England. Now, as she returns to Paris to attend an exhibition of her work, she must face some unfinished business—namely her ten-year-old son, George, who’s been raised by his father, Eric, and doting grandmother. In this precocious Parisian boy, she is finally about to meet her match. “Amusing, enjoyable, Miss Sharp is a born storyteller.” —The Times (London)