The Serpent's Bite

A heatwave often not only heightens the perceptions but tautens the nerves - under its spell a spark can quickly set the emotions blazing.In this short dramatic novel a family crisis gathers round Philippe Gramont, a young man returning from his honeymoon. It is an inauspicious home-coming: his mother resents his attractive wife, Marion; his father is obsessed with plans for his future; and to make matters worse his mother's old admirer, Lucien, an artist of disturbing magnetism, joins the party. Almost immediately Philippe begins to neglect Marion for the stimulating companionship of the artist.Affinities and antagonisms which might otherwise have been mastered,intensify in the shimmering heat of the French country-side.

In The Serpent's Bite Christine Arnothy displays her gifts for creating character and atmosphere and for ruthless observation. In the startling climax of her novel the characters are faced with no worse than - and no less than - the truth. Yet, selfish, vulnerable and disingenuous as they are, the truth which establishes their real relationships also threatens to destroy their peace of mind for ever. This is the third of Christine Arnothy's novels to be translated, with her usual skill, by Antonia White.