East Side, West Side

"A novel of luxury living in New York...Jessie Bourne, whose mother had been a distinguished and widely loved Jewish actress, is married to a faithless husband belonging to an old, conventional family, and she preserves the fiction of their marriage in the midst of a group who make sport of divorce and infidelity. When her husband’s family is threatened with a devastating scandal of blackmail and murder Jessie engineers their escape, knows she has no futher obligation to her husband, and takes for a lover an idealistic patriot just returned from the Czech underground." -American Library Association’s Booklist

"A novel about an unpleasant and sophisticated section of New York society to whom divorce and infidelity were a matter of course. Throughout this degenerate and shoddy existence, Jessie Bourne, keeping up the appearances of her own unsuccessful marriage, tried to preserve her own integrity. The story takes place in seven days during which time Jessie reaches a climax in her life. Flashbacks reveal details of Jessie’s background and a nostalgic love of the city of New York." -Ontario Library Review

"The novel was praised when it first appeared for capturing ’with gusto, with vivacity, and in detail whole chunks of Manhattan Life’ (Saturday Review). Other qualities which favorabley impressed the reviewers were the delineation of the novel’s heroine, Jessie Bourne, and what the New Yorker called ’real moral stamina.’...This reprint from Bentley is a most welcome one. Mrs. Davenport deeserves to be better known, and possibly the republication of what some feel is her best novel will inaugurate a closer look at her life and works. She has been well served by Bentley in the quality of this reprint..." -Reprint Bulletin-Book Reviews

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