Stephen McKenna (1) (1888–1967)

McKenna delivers playful satire through a narrator whose complete lack of humor only makes her exploits more hilarious. Lady Anne tells "a friend of proven discretion" of her struggles to marry off her good-for-nothing son and keep her own high social position in post-WWI England. Is she really the innocent victim of social change, as she imagines herself, or is she the heartless Machiavelli that certain family members imagine her to be? The truth is more complex, and more entertaining. A show more delightful romp! show less

Lady Lilith is a nick-name given to the main character Lady Barbara Neave because of her tendency to behave in an innocent through amoral way. Lilith was Adam's first wife, before Eve, according to the Talmud and a wife who lived before the advent of evil in the Garden of Eden.

Barbara's reputation has proceeded her to London with great attention to the upper reaches of society during the years before the First World War. Barbara first gains noteriety by being in a plane crash (surviving) show more because she persuaded the pilot to take her up. Next she is involved in an auto crash (chauffeur is killed) due to her persuading a friend to take the the car (chauffeur is bribed) without permission. The incident all but ruins her place in society but she bounces back by playing up to the drama and tragedy of the thing in the Illustrated Paper. Next she is present at a seance escorted by the same friend of the car crash, where one member of the group drops dead during a session with the Medium. Three strikes--but Barbara is not out!

She spurns all proposals of marriage opting to wait for the man who cares nothing for her (!)---a situation which looks impossible in the crowds of egible and smitten London bachelors. Eventually her hope turns up in the character of George Waring, a stiff, humorless, conservative barrister. Here is one fellow who not only doesn't care about her but goes to great lengths to avoid her. She sets out, successfully, to catch him through various subtrifuges. He eventually pursues her--which brings Barbara to a personal crisis of identity. Just who and what is she? The personalities of both Barbara and George are scrutinized and eventually pegged by readers as war looms and the two main characters struggle to connect. The ending is far from satisfactory but then this is the first installment in McKenna's trilogy, The Sensationalists).

Although McKenna has fallen out of favor with most readers today, his depiction of the life of innocent frivolity in London-before-the Great War, has considerable charm. Whether intentional or not, McKenna's subtexts in this novel call out to 21st century readers e.g. Barbara's loss of a female sibling=wildness, anorexia, and self-loathing; Barbara's relationship with her father=conquering a suitor who initially cares nothing for her, etc. all told with wide-eyed innocence. show less