This novel, fraught with characters—some loveable, some dramatic, some helpful, and another frightfully annoying. Brookner began, “Dr. [Ruth] Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature. // In her thoughtful and academic way, she put it down to her faulty moral education, which dictated, through the conflicting but in this one instance united agencies of her mother and father, that she ponder the careers of Anna Karenina and David Copperfield and Little Dorrit” (7). I am sure my faithful listeners will notice my love of novels flooded with literature. Ruth’s mother, Helen, was a noted actress who used her dramatic skills at every opportunity. Anita wrote, “‘Darling heart’ called her mother, as she outlined her eyes with blue, watching her mouth uttering the words. ‘Yes, darling,’ called George [her husband] admiring the fit of a new jacket, tying a silk scarf at his neck. To the grandmother, they were fools” (17).