The Splendid Folly

Sheets of music scattered by a March wind bring Diana Quentin into brief contact with a reserved stranger. Her immediate concern, however, is an appointment with Carlo Baroni, a celebrated singing teacher whose judgment may decide her professional prospects. Margaret Pedler opens this romance with the practical anxieties of an aspiring singer, then takes the reader into a lesson where Baroni insists that a fine voice alone cannot make an artist.

Music also gives personal trust a public test. When Olga Lermontof injures her hand before Diana's concert appearance, Max Errington offers to take over the accompaniments. Diana accepts his help while facing an impatient audience and her own stage fright. The novel's interest lies in the meeting of musical ambition, friendship and courtship. Readers who enjoy stories about performers will find music lessons, artistic criticism and the pressure of stepping onto a concert platform woven into its emotional scenes.