To cast away upon a remote island of the Pacific two typical spinsters, a bibulous Irishman, and a mixed party of some two score foundlings, in the eighteen fifties, and seventy years later to introduce to the curious society which has been formed an ultra modern family from Cambridge is the exquisite device that forms the nucleus for Miss Macaulay's new novel. A freak of circumstances has preserved on this island the semblance of Victorian culture, and the problem of whether the Post Georgians will conquer it or conform to it offers a subject for fascinating speculation that gives full play to Miss Macaulay's wit and wicked satire. Her Orphan Island, in effect, becomes a miniature England, with its class war raging in full blast, and its group of malcontents hurling impresactions on the reigning powers from a neighboring islet that has been named "Hibernia." The interlopers from modern Cambridge have a fearful time becoming acclimated, and the islanders' various reactions to twentieth century refinements make delightfully amusing reading, pungent and graceful, with a spontaneity Miss Macaulay alone can attain. The climax of the book is sensational. (Jacket copy from the first American edition, 1925, Boni & Liveright)