May Sinclair's novel "Romantic" is a captivating exploration of love, desire, and societal expectations. The protagonist, Ivory Berridge, finds herself torn between her duty to her family and her own desires for romantic fulfillment. As she navigates the complexities of relationships and societal norms, the reader is drawn into a world of passion, longing, and heartache.

Sinclair's prose is masterful, enveloping the reader in the emotional turmoil of Ivory's journey. The characters are vividly drawn, each with their own hopes, fears, and flaws. The novel delves into themes of female autonomy, societal constraints, and the nature of love, all while maintaining a sense of urgency and suspense.

Overall, "Romantic" is a thought-provoking and emotionally rich novel that will resonate with readers long after they have finished the final page. Sinclair has crafted a compelling story that delves deep into the complexities of the human heart, leaving a lasting impression on all who read it.

Book Description:
As a simple story told, "The Romantic" is one of Sinclair’s tightest and most compelling. Charlotte Redhead, a young British secretary, finds herself in a degrading extra-marital affair with her boss. In reaction, she renounces Sex and links herself platonically to a handsome young Bohemian (John Conway) she meets by chance, tramping in the fields. Together, under a powerful romantic excitement, the two rush off to Belgium in the early weeks of World War I, having organized their own little volunteer ambulance corps. The romance of the adventure begins to break down when the various ambulance corps start to back-stab each other, each selfishly seeking to one-up the others for glory. The real crisis comes when the central characters begin to reveal the true human characters behind their romantic delusions, in the end turning the attention back to the genuine human suffering that was the real story of the hideous Great War. An indictment of the author’s own thrill-seeking past, as revealed in her "Journal of Impressions in Belgium," and showing some of the concerns of the so-called Lost Generation that included Hemingway and Dos Passos and Woolf, "The Romantic" weaves together a number of fascinating themes, re-interpreting with Sinclair’s inimitable frankness post-war attitudes about sex, war, patriotism, and even the new psychology.