Book excerpt: Kay Boyle's second novel, Year Before Last, was published in 1932 by Harrison Smith in New York and by Faber and Faber in London, in each case a true edition from different settings of type. Matthew J. Bruccoli, the textual editor of the Cross­currents/Modern Fiction series, has used the Harrison Smith edition in preparing this volume which is unique in the annals of textual editing of a modern novel because the emendations in the copy-text have been approved by the author. Harry T. Moore has provided a Preface which considers this work in relation to Miss Boyle's development as a novelist. Mr. Bruccoli's Note on the Text provides information about both the 1932 editions and lists the emendations. Against the background of the French Riviera we watch the unfolding of the story of a young woman who has left her husband for another man, a poet of compelling personality. Their love affair is complicated by the insane jealousy of an older woman which leads them to acts of desperation. This novel of love and hate moves forward in swift incident and action to a dramatic end.