Joy Street

Title: Joy Street
Genre: Fiction
Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885-1970)
Illustrator: Jacket—Doris Beer; Endpapers—Thomas Fransioli, Jr.; Chapter Heading Drawings—Storey Shaw
Publisher: Julian Messner, Inc., New York, New York
Year: 1950
Pages: 490
Format: Hardcover, with dust jacket
Provenance: Contains a newspaper subscription receipt stub from Hunt's News Agency for the dates of April 1 to May 1, 1951.
Opening Sentence: "Emily Thayer stood beside the Christmas tree in the drawing room of the old Forbes house on Louisburg Square, looking out at the candle-lighted windows across the park and listening to the carolers who came stamping through the snow."
Random Passage: "'Yes, Yes, I can see how it would all work out. Simply and naturally and pleasantly. And I've been making mountains out of molehills all winter. I must be the dumbest girl you ever knew. And the meanest. I should think you'd hate me. I should think you'd want to beat me.'"
Goodreads Review: "If you are reading this review either (1) you are already familiar with Keyes and her literary bon-bons and wonder if this one holds its taste in the 21st century or (2) you were charmed by the vintage book jacket at a library book sale and wonder whether to actually read it. In the case of 1, mostly. Keyes's sympathies clearly lay with the 'modern' Boston Brahman newlyweds trying to expand the scope of their life beyond their conservative upbringing. She does a nice job of depicting life among the rich and wannabe rich in Boston, revolving around the young lawyers in a maverick law firm. It's an interesting note that big law firm law was thought to be just as soul-crushing in the 1930s as it is today. (2) If this book appealed to you enough to buy, you will probably have seen Old Acquaintance on TCM, the one where Miriam Hopkins writes vastly popular 'women's novels' out of spite and jealousy directed at her best frenemy, 'serious writer' Bette Davis. Joy Street is exactly the kind of book Miriam Hopkins's character would have written. Act accordingly." - Ellen, October 9, 2017
Notes: According to Wikipedia, this sentimental story of a newlywed couple attempting to fit into Boston's elite society became a massive success upon its publication, topping the New York Times Fiction best-selling list for eight weeks.