By Molly Keane
256 pages; Virago

A lonely heroine with a generous heart, an aristocratic Irish manor house, a debonair, diffident heartthrob who shows up at the Hunt Ball...and yet, praise be, Loving and Giving is emphatically not chick lit. This stylish, incisive novel of serial heartbreak by the late Molly Keane examines "the revenge life takes on those who please and give too much." Bring your smelling salts: The shock of recognition might be too much.

— Cathleen Medwick