An attempt by Sinclair Lewis to revisit his success and the Italian locale of "Dodsworth". He fails on both counts, but it is a decent effort, with another standard Sinclair lewis love story thrown in. ( )

Novel about Hayden Chart, architect of New Life, Colorado, whose wife was killed in an automobile accident, and of his trip abroad for a sabbatical year. In a chilly and uncomfortable pension, in Florence, from which he carries on his excursions ino the culture of medieval Italy, Hayden is atracted to the cold beauty of Olivia Lomond, scholar and authority on all things Italian before the sixteenth century. But for the life of pure research is complicated for Hayden by pert little Roxy from back home and by Lorenzo Lundsgard, who wants to package Florentine culture for American consumption.