BELLA

by Anne & Edward Syfret ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 1978

An old-fashioned French bisque poupee' de luxe, Bella is found locked in a trunk in a secret cupboard of a deserted old house in the woods. Strangely though, once she is discovered by English neighbor Sandy, and Sandy's French guest Honorine, she doesn't seem to stay in one place. When Honorine is so enchanted by the beautiful doll that the girls return to Bell Tower Hall to get her, they find Bella standing on the tower stairs. Later Honorine finds her on a ledge of the high tower and falls to the ground trying to retrieve her. Fortunately, Honorine's fall is broken; but isn't it odd that the doll's former owner, a young bride, had fallen to her death from the same tower? And the following summer (Part Two in the book), when Sandy goes to visit Honorine, who now has the doll, she finds her friend near distraction because of Bella's mysterious night wanderings. All of this is most effectively unfolded; Bella is, truly, a tantalizing figure, and the Syfrets set the scene--several scenes--with attention to solid reality and a feel for fine vibrations. Unfortunately, Part Three, set eight years later in 1947, is a long and corny anticlimax. With Sandy cozily married and the girls reunited for the first time, they meet a ""proper old-fashioned gentleman,"" a twinkling-eyed antiquarian from the Victoria and Albert Museum, who just happens to be interested in old dolls--and who takes it upon himself to investigate Bella's history, returning to tell the tale to the accompaniment of Sandy and Honorine's girlish squeals of glee and appreciation. It's a pity that Bella's origins couldn't have been more suspensefully integrated with the initial story; but the revelations themselves, involving witchcraft and another young woman's fatal fall, are not disappointing. And by this time readers will be so intrigued by the mysterious Bella that they will surely wait to hear them.

Pub Date: July 15, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION