cover image The Old Enchantment

The Old Enchantment

Sarah Neilan. St. Martin's Press, $18.95 (344pp) ISBN 978-0-312-05485-4

In this pleasant English romance, protagonist Lizzie reminisces about the Delmayne family and their Northumberland estate where she often stayed while growing up, delighting in the house itself and the company of her adolescent cousins, with their spirited escapades and youthful amours. We follow the decline of the family over 54 years, through the losses of World War I, financial failure, revelations of scandals, frustrated relationships. The narrative moves in leisurely fashion between England and Canada, where some Delmayne descendants, and Lizzie herself (during an unhappy marriage), settle. Her life spent keeping other people's secrets, Lizzie eventually realizes that none of her cherished Delmaynes ``proved to be quite what they seemed,'' yet she is the willing catalyst who insures the continuity of place for future generations. Neilan ( Paradise ) tells an entertaining, if formulaic story. (Mar.)