Carnival

The moving romance of dancer Jenny Pearl: a story which helped establish Mackenzie among the foremost novelists of his generation.

Jenny Pearl, a dancer, falls in love with Maurice Avery, a young dilettante who leaves her when she refuses to become his mistress. Despairingly, she falls into a loveless marriage with Trewhella, a Cornish farmer who becomes insanely jealous when Avery reappears on the scene...

Vivid, moving and ultimately tragic, Carnival was first published in 1912 to wide critical acclaim, helping to establish Mackenzie as one of the foremost British novelists of his generation. It has since been filmed three times and adapted for the stage and as an opera.

About the Author

Sir Compton Mackenzie, OBE, was born into a theatrical family in 1883. A writer and Scottish nationalist, he published almost a hundred books across a range of different genres, including fiction, history, biography, literary criticism, satire, children's stories and poetry. He is perhaps best known for two comedies set in Scotland, Whisky Galore and The Monarch of the Glen. He died in 1972.