["In a Summer Season"] is, on the surface, the most explicit of Elizabeth Taylor's fine, subtle novels. It has to do with conflict that seems more open and obvious than that in her earlier books, more easily caught and described.

Kate, left a widow by a successful and rather stuffy husband, has remarried. Her choice is quite wrong, but quite understandable. Dermot is a charming drifter, ten years her junior. He did not marry Kate for her money (though he is continually expecting people to think so); he loves her, and this love is the best and most hopeful thing about him. Still, marrying Kate has insured that he need not look too hard for a new job….

None the less, the action of the book turns largely on the question of "a job for Dermot."…

The first half of the book establishes both the likelihood of this...