Westmacott books, except Giant's Bread, this book carried no dedication. Dustjacket blurb The blurb on the inside flap of the dustjacket of the first edition reads: In a Spanish garden overlooking the sea an artist comes upon a solitary woman. He goes away, not wishing to disturb her solitude, but is suddenly impelled to rush back, realising that she means to commit suicide. To save her he takes her back to her hotel and spends the night in her room while she tells him the story of her life. It begins with her childhood, Celia – the name by which the artist calls her, not knowing her real one – was a reserved, highly imaginative, shy and inarticulate child. Occasionally she has a strange dream in which she sees a malevolent-eyed man, a figure which haunts her throughout her life. He is psychologically her symbol for fear. At fifteen she goes to Paris to study music. She becomes a very fine pianist and a good singer, but her temperament handicaps her and prevents her doing herself justice in public. Her mother takes her to Egypt for a winter season, where her beauty and good dancing make her a success with men in spite of her shyness. Celia attracts many admirers, including Major De Burgh, a sensualist who writes her wonderful love letters but is less pleasing in the flesh; Jim Grant, an intensely practical youth, to whom Celia becomes engaged, but who frankly bores her; and Peter Maitland, easy-going, lovable and tenderly devoted. She promises to marry Peter, but while he is in India with his regiment she meets Dermot, who sweeps her off her feet with his egotistical devotion and insists on their being married almost at once. For several years they are happy, but finally she divorces him. For years she travels, a woman whom many men have loved, but never yet has found love. A prey to her own fears, to her refusal to face up to realities, she comes at last to the place where the artist had found her. In a very moving scene she recognises in the artist the incarnation of her ideals and desires. References External links Unfinished Portrait at the official Agatha Christie website 1934 British novels British autobiographical novels Novels by Agatha Christie Works published under a pseudonym Novels about artists William Collins, Sons books