Book disasters

Digging out a hardback copy of "Gaudy NIght" almost caused a major disaster in my study -- all the books over it started to spill out.

I have other copies of "Gaudy Night," of course. One of them is a first American edition that a supervisor gave me back when I worked in a D.C.-area bookstore. She didn't respect first American editions.

In the mail today I received my third copy (later edition) of an early Barbara Cartland romance, "Desire of the Heart." The book was written before her stable of secretaries reportedly took over. (I can't find the other copies.)

On the back cover of the later edition, received today:

When Cornelia, unexpectedly wealthy, arrives from Ireland to stay with her uncle and aunt in London, she dresses in dowdy country clothes and hides shyly behind her spectacles.

The beautiful Lady Bedlington, to save herself from having to relinquish her handsome young lover, persuades the Duke to propose to Cornelia. A few hours before the wedding, Cornelia, who has fallen in love with her fiancé, finds out why he is marrying her.

In Paris, disguised as a very different person by one of the famous demi-mondaines of the City, she makes a desperate fight to capture the heart of her debonair husband.