The Lady and the Unicorn. A Virago Modern Classic - Rumer Godden

By the author of Black Narcissus and The River

''One of our best and most captivating novelists'' Philip Hensher

''Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty'' New York Times

In a crumbling Calcutta mansion, with faded frescos and a jasmine-covered garden, the Lemarchant family live, clinging to the fringes of respectability: neither Indian nor English, they are accepted by no one and exploited by all.

After only a day in India, Stephen Bright meets Rosa Lemarchant. In an ill-fitting dress once belonging to her sister, she is awkward and shy, and couldn''t be more different from the stories he has heard of fast ''Eurasian'' girls. Ignorant of Calcutta''s strict codes of conformity, he falls in love with Rosa and becomes enchanted by the building in which she lives, determined to uncover its secrets.

Mystery pervades this story of a memory-haunted house in old Calcutta, as secret as a sundial in a ruined garden.