Acknowledged as Rebecca West's fictional masterpiece, The Fountain
Overflows introduces the crisis-ridden Aubrey family. This Real Night
continues their remarkable story. It is the early 1900s. With the
disappearance of Piers, her feckless and gambling husband, and the sale
of some valuable paintings, Clare Aubrey has a firmer grip on the purse
strings. Rose and Mary are at Music College, struggling for artistic
perfection, while the self-assured Cordelia has fallen into the role of
art dealer's assistant. Richard Quin, beloved younger brother, is
contemplating Oxford. The children's coming of age, with its gradual
acceptance of love and loss, becomes all the more poignant as the events
of the First World War gather pace....