Ada Or Ardor: A Family Chronicle,Used

Ardis Hall The Ardors And Arbors Of Ardis This Is The Leitmotif Rippling Through Ada, An Ample And Delightful Chronicle, Whose Principal Part Is Staged In A Dreambright America For Are Not American Childhood Memories Comparable To Vinelandborn Caravellas, Indolently Encircled By The White Birds Of Dreams? The Protagonist, A Scion Of One Of America'S Most Illustrious And Opulent Families, Is Dr Van Veen, Son Of Baron 'Demon' Veen, That Memorable Manhattan And Reno Figure. The End Of An Extraordinary Epoch Coincides With Van'S No Less Extraordinary Boyhood. Nothing In World Literature, Save Maybe Count Tolstoy'S Reminiscences, Can Vie In Pure Joyousness And Arcadian Innocence With The 'Ardis' Part Of The Book. On The Fabulous Country Estate Of His Artcollecting Uncle, Daniel Veen, Married To The Descendant Of A Russian Princely Race, An Ardent Childhood Romance Develops In A Series Of Fascinating Scenes Between Van And Pretty Ada, A Truly Unusual Gamine, Daughter Of Marina, Daniel'S Stagestruck Wife. That The Relationship Is Not Simply Dangerous Cousinage But Possesses An Aspect Prohibited By Law Is Hinted In The Very First Pages.In Spite Of The Many Intricacies Of Plot And Psychology, The Story Proceeds At A Spanking Pace. Before We Can Pause To Take Breath And Quietly Survey The New Surroundings Into Which The Writer'S Magic Carpet Has, At It Were, Spilled Us, Another Attractive Girl, Lucette Veen, Marina'A Younger Daughter, Has Also Been Swept Off Her Feet By Van, The Irresistible Rake. Her Tragic Destiny Constitutes One Of The Highlights Of This Delightful Book.The Rest Of Van'S Story Turns Frankly And Colourfully Upon His Long Loveaffair With Ada. It Is Interrupted By Her Marriage To An Arizonan Cattlebreeder Whose Fabulous Ancestor Discovered America. After Her Husband'S Death Our Lovers Are Reunited. They Spend Their Old Age Travelling Together And Dwelling In The Various Villas, One Lovelier Than Another, That Van Has Erected All Over The Western Hemisphere. Not The Least Adornment Of The Chronicle Is The Delicacy Of Pictorial Detail: A Latticed Gallery; A Painted Ceiling; A Pretty Plaything Stranded Among The Forgetmenots Of A Brook; Butterflies And Butterfly Orchids In The Margin Of The Romance; A Misty View Descried From Marbled Steps; A Doe At Gaze In The Ancestral Park; And Much, Much More.