THE meagre sun that for thirteen pallid February days had shone with no more brilliance than a rushlight stuck amid the cobwebs of a garret, poured down at last his profuse glories, and Curtain Wells woke up to a fine morning and the burden of conscious existence, with an effort all the more completely unanimous on account of its reputation as an inland Spa. Residence there implied an almost monastick ideal of regularity. Other shrines of Æsculapius, falling from their primitive purity of ...

The Passionate Elopement is a sparkling satire of manners set in Curtain Wells, a fashionable inland spa where health cures, flirtation, gossip, and social display are all part of the same ritual. From the disciplined morning promenades at the Pump Room to masquerades, valentine schemes, tea tables, and carefully staged public entertainments, the novel delights in exposing the absurd machinery of high society while celebrating its wit and theatrical energy. At the center is Phyllida Courte...

Sir Compton Mackenzie, (1883–1972) was a prolific writer of fiction, biography, histories, and memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur, and lifelong Scottish nationalist.It is described by Dr. John MacInnes (formerly of the School of Scottish Studies) as "one of the greatest works of English literature produced in the twentieth century."Sylvia & MichaelGuy and Pauline, 1915The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia, 1918Scarle...

In Plashers Mead, Compton Mackenzie follows Guy Hazlewood as he arrives in the countryside to begin a self-chosen life at his new home, bringing his books, his hopes, and his unease with him. Across the turning seasons of a single year, the novel traces his attempt to live as a poet in rural seclusion, balancing ambition, loneliness, and the comic inconveniences of daily existence. His father's stern, practical letter makes clear how precarious that freedom is, setting artistic aspiration ...

Jasmine Grant arrives alone at York railway station, exhausted after a long journey from southern Italy to the chill of the north, and at once feels herself a stranger in England. Draggled, grieving, and out of place, she wanders the city walls in a state of exile and memory, mourning the island home of Sirene, her dead father, and the mother she barely knew. Compton Mackenzie turns her displacement into a social comedy of loss, where family obligation is as bewildering as the climate. A f...

Poor Relations follows John Touchwood, a witty but self-dramatizing playwright whose life is thrown into comic confusion by success, gossip, and the demands of family. On the Atlantic crossing home from New York, he basks in theatrical triumphs, rereads affectionate and exasperating letters from relatives, and falls into a flirtation with the reserved Miss Hamilton and her sharp companion Miss Merritt. What begins as an amused, romantic voyage soon exposes the gap between John's public cha...

In these vivid Kensington poems, an ordinary house, a square, and a round pond are transformed through a child's imagination into a whole world of wonder, embarrassment, rivalry, and fear. The speaker moves from family rooms and social rituals to dancing class, parties, and playground games, observing childhood with playful wit and a sharp eye for manners, teasing, and longing. As the collection unfolds, make-believe grows grander: toy ships become epic naval battles, and even small mishap...

It's 1943 and the war has brought rationing to the Hebridean islands of Great and Little Todday. When food is in short supply, it is bad enough, but when the whisky runs out, it looks like the end of the world.Morale is at rock bottom. George Campbell needs a wee dram to give him the courage to stand up to his mother and marry Catriona. The priest, the doctor and, of course, the landlord at the inn are all having a very thin time of it. There's no conversation, no jolity, no fun - ...

From a world of daisies as big as moons and of mountainous green hillocks Michael Fane came by some unrealized method of transport to the thin red house, that as yet for his mind could not claim an individual existence amid the uniformity of a long line of fellows. His arrival coincided with a confusion of furniture, with the tramp of men backwards and forwards from a cavernous vehicle very dry and dusty. He found himself continually being lifted out of the way of washstands and skeleton c...

Chester Royde, an American millionaire, travels to Scotland with his new bride Carrie and sister Myrtle, to find out more about Carrie's Scottish ancestry. Their new 'relatives' turn out to be a little more authentically Scottish than they bargained for. Ben Nevis, Laird of Glenbogle Castle, is fiercely protective of his lands and the Macdonald clan spirit, but being cash-strapped he's not above attempts to marry heiress Myrtle to one of his many brawny sons. But then a group of hikers stu...

With the spirited and unforgettable Sylvia Scarlett, a character acclaimed as being 'one of the few really great women in fiction', Compton Mackenzie brings us his very own Becky Sharp. Originally published in two volumes, this complete edition follows her fortunes from childhood and marriage, through her escape into prostitution and her later career as a singer and cabaret artiste, until at last she finds romance with Michael Fane.A tale weaved with Dickensian skill and humour in ...

The Complete Works of Compton MacKenzieThis Complete Collection includes the following titles:--------1 - The Altar Steps2 - Carnival3 - Plashers Mead4 - Sinister Street, vol. 15 - Sinister Street, vol. 26 - The Passionate Elopement7 - Poor Relations8 - Kensington Rhymes9 - Rich Relatives10 - The Vanity Girl11 - The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett12 - Guy and Pauline...