HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL.

Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1988. 253 pp, 8 3/4" H. Inscribed on title page: "For R___ and N___ - Who opened the show - With thanks and good thoughts / Ted / 11/11/88". "Harold Adams, widower and retired businessman, is about to turn sixty-five. He is grouchy and he smokes too much. Just when he thinks life holds no more surprises or adventures, he accepts the chairmanship of a fund-raising gala farewell performance of operatic diva Maria Speranza, and thereby sets in motion an ever-widening spiral of events. Harold soon finds that his life of relative leisure is interrupted by the return of his widowed daughter, by his son's love life, by the appearance of a former lover, and by other unexpected complications. No social class or individual escapes Phillips' acerbic wit and penetrating observations. The moneyed ladies of Westmount take their comeuppance gracefully and in good humour. Liaisons of all descriptions are held up for scrutiny: inflated, punctured, and caressed, before they work themselves through to sometimes surprising resolution." Previous owner's name in ink at top of front free endpaper (one of the people mentioned in the inscription), minor wrinkling at top/bottom of hinges. Dust jacket has minor edge wear, very light rubbing on panels, minor wrinkling at top/bottom of hinges and flap-folds.. Inscribed By Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good+/Very Good+. Illus. by Murray Tonkin, dust jacket art..