Dear Mrs. Boswell
by .St. Martin’s Press, $3.50.
A novelized account of Boswell’s married life. First we see him, after his return from his European travels, darting from Auchinleck to Edinburgh and to Glasgow as he tries to decide who is most fitted to become Mrs. Boswell. Eventually he married the unlikeliest candidate, his timid cousin, Peggy, who had long been in love with him. Their marriage turned out to be a sorry affair. Mrs. Boswell was soon made miserable by her husband’s heavy drinking, his infidelities, and his long absences from home in the company of Dr. Johnson; and presently ill-health intensified Peggy’s unhappiness. Miss Muir’s novel, unfortunately, is a pretty wooden job. Its only interest is that it satisfies the curiosity about Boswell’s life in Scotland aroused the Journals.