Geoffrey Hampstead: A Novel

A young bank clerk pines after a spirited woman whose extended travels in Europe return her to a circle of admirers, provoking his alternating hope and despair. Their on-again, off-again intimacy is set against the social rituals of a port city, boating clubs, and expatriate sightseeing, while rival suitors and flirtations repeatedly unsettle his certainty. Through episodic scenes of sport, travel, and domestic encounters, the narrative examines constancy versus caprice, the performance of romance, and the personal cost of jealousy and social ambition.