The Green Dolphin

About the book

Asaph Holmes fills his house with gardening equipment and treasured clippings, relying on the formidable Hannah Dole whenever his collections make the rooms uninhabitable. Meeting Althea Morton introduces a different kind of disruption: her warmth and energy persuade him that companionship might be worth changing his habits for. Married life soon reveals that Althea needs more sociability than their quiet home supplies. Her proposal to open a tearoom, the Green Dolphin, brings visitors, business, and unfamiliar demands toward the spaces Asaph considers his refuges. Bassett develops the comedy through contrasting temperaments and the reactions of friends and neighbors. The enterprise becomes a practical test of affection, asking how much accommodation a shared life requires from people who want very different kinds of happiness.

• Marriage and accommodation
• Community and enterprise
• Solitude and sociability

Why read it

The tearoom gives the couple's differences a lively practical expression in the use of their own home.

English Penn Publishing text with the February 1927 fifth-printing statement