The Loved One

First published in 1948, this short novel follows Dennis Barlow, a failed English poet working at a Hollywood pet cemetery, as he enters Whispering Glades, a luxurious human funeral park. He courts Aimee Thanatogenos, a cosmetician there, while Mr Joyboy, the senior embalmer, competes for her attention. The plot turns on the industry's rituals of display, the English colony's snobbery, and Aimee's crisis of faith in her work. The book is a satire of American mortuary commerce and expatriate manners, not a romance of Hollywood stardom.

Bound in orange cloth with a flaming heart design in red. Pink printed endleaves. Dark red slipcase.