The Use of Riches
Art is very much part of Rupert Craine's life. He is a banker and country squire, but also a connoisseur and collector of art. His beautiful and wealthy wife, Jill, is the widow of John Arnander, an artist of genius killed in Italy in World War II. The Craines live happily on a comfortable country estate with Jill's twelve- and eleven-year-old sons by Arnander and their own two young children. As Jill remarks, an almost Edwardian order reigns in the household. "Of course," she says, "none of it may last."

That afternoon she has received a cable from an old acquaintance, an Italian marchesa. It seems that Arnander fathered an illegitimate son whom the archesa has been looking after. She can no longer do so and wants Jill to come and arrange the boy's future. The Crains hasten to Italy, Rupert going along to the preliminary interview with the marchesa, as he is suspicous that there may not really be an Arnander child, that this is a ruse to extract money.

The truth revealed to him by the marchesa is shattering, and the quintessentially civilized Craines find themselves plunged into an increasingly bizarre drama.
"1000559955"
The Use of Riches
Art is very much part of Rupert Craine's life. He is a banker and country squire, but also a connoisseur and collector of art. His beautiful and wealthy wife, Jill, is the widow of John Arnander, an artist of genius killed in Italy in World War II. The Craines live happily on a comfortable country estate with Jill's twelve- and eleven-year-old sons by Arnander and their own two young children. As Jill remarks, an almost Edwardian order reigns in the household. "Of course," she says, "none of it may last."

That afternoon she has received a cable from an old acquaintance, an Italian marchesa. It seems that Arnander fathered an illegitimate son whom the archesa has been looking after. She can no longer do so and wants Jill to come and arrange the boy's future. The Crains hasten to Italy, Rupert going along to the preliminary interview with the marchesa, as he is suspicous that there may not really be an Arnander child, that this is a ruse to extract money.

The truth revealed to him by the marchesa is shattering, and the quintessentially civilized Craines find themselves plunged into an increasingly bizarre drama.
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The Use of Riches

The Use of Riches

by Stewart, J. I. M. Stewart
The Use of Riches

The Use of Riches

by Stewart, J. I. M. Stewart

Paperback(Phoenix fiction ed)

$35.00 
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Overview

Art is very much part of Rupert Craine's life. He is a banker and country squire, but also a connoisseur and collector of art. His beautiful and wealthy wife, Jill, is the widow of John Arnander, an artist of genius killed in Italy in World War II. The Craines live happily on a comfortable country estate with Jill's twelve- and eleven-year-old sons by Arnander and their own two young children. As Jill remarks, an almost Edwardian order reigns in the household. "Of course," she says, "none of it may last."

That afternoon she has received a cable from an old acquaintance, an Italian marchesa. It seems that Arnander fathered an illegitimate son whom the archesa has been looking after. She can no longer do so and wants Jill to come and arrange the boy's future. The Crains hasten to Italy, Rupert going along to the preliminary interview with the marchesa, as he is suspicous that there may not really be an Arnander child, that this is a ruse to extract money.

The truth revealed to him by the marchesa is shattering, and the quintessentially civilized Craines find themselves plunged into an increasingly bizarre drama.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780226774039
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 05/15/1983
Series: Phoenix Fiction
Edition description: Phoenix fiction ed
Pages: 246
Product dimensions: 5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

J. I. M. Stewart, Reader in English Literature at Oxford University, has written fifteen novels and also biographies of Kipling, Hardy, and Conrad. As Michael Innes, he is one of the acknowledged masters of the detective novel.
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