this out and tried to blackmail him. After the company has arrived in India, Kent attempts suicide by defenestration. The conclusion of the novel differs between the American and UK editions. The UK edition ends with the following passage, which gives the book its title: As his body began to plunge towards the drive he held his arms in a grotesque attitude as though to break his fall and he cried out; but not for mercy. However, the American edition features a happier ending, in which it is made clear that Kent survives and resolves to pursue a life with Anson. The American edition also featured more physical intimacy between Kent and Anson, including kissing. Look Down in Mercy was hailed as "an uncommonly good first novel" by Time magazine, and has been deemed "a pioneering study of gay relationships in a hostile and indifferent world". A 1956 scholarly journal article, "The Most Neglected Books of the Past Twenty-Five Years", cited the novel as "very remarkable ... even as truly great", but claimed that most American critics had not acknowledged this. The Image and the Search His second novel, The Image and the Search, was published in October 1953. Baxter writes of Sarah, who is very happily married to RAF member Robert. Robert is the ideal "image" alluded to in the book's title. After Robert is killed in the war, Sarah embarks on a search for love to match that which she shared with Robert. She takes many lovers, but none can compare to Robert. While in India on business, she encounters Johan, who, although dark, bears a resemblance to Robert. Sarah tries to seduce Johan, but she does not succeed. Her quest for love has been futile. The novel was praised by E. M. Forster as "a serious and beautiful book". However, a Saturday Review Book Service critic wrote that the book's theme was intractable and the protagonist was unsympathetic; this critic also quipped that the heroine's climax in her pursuit "sets some sort of a new high in phallic symbolism". In March 1954, the Sunday Express printed a column in which Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook stated that the lesson to be surmised from the book's "erotic odyssey" was that "sexual excess can be indulged in with a light heart and a clear conscience". The column went on to suggest that Alexander Stewart Frere, the chairman of the book's