[top corners bumped, some offsetting to endpapers, otherwise a solid clean book; jacket insect-nibbled at various points along edges, spine color-shifted, light dampstaining to rear panel]. "This is the story of Violet Amory, a New York society beauty of the twenties and thirties, who sought a carefree life in the playgrounds and pleasure resorts of the idle rich, but found the price more than she could pay. With her young son Peter, her devoted hangers-on, her kennel of little dogs, her Cartier jewels and Vuitton trunks, she drifted to Venice, Paris, the Riviera, New York, and Newport, leaving a trail of beautiful young men behind her." The story is narrated by the son, who "describes with elegance, charm, and a deftly unobtrusive irony the ultra-fashionable world" through which his mother gayly wafts.