The Bay of Naples: a widow, her daughter, an island, and a young man who does not know whose son he is. Hichens made his name at twenty-nine with The Green Carnation, an anonymous satire on Wilde so accurate it was withdrawn after the trials; here he writes the south - heat, water, a mother's secret - at enormous length and with real hypnotic power.

Robert Hichens (1864-1950) was an English novelist and journalist. After working as a music critic for the London Evening Standard, he wrote a series of novels including The Prophet of Berkeley Square, A Spirit in Prison, In the Wilderness, December Love, and The Woman with the Fan.