The Story of Ivy

Published in the United Kingdom in 1927, The Story of Ivy is a melodramatic murder mystery centered on a young woman, Ivy Lexton, who is caught up in the lifestyle of fashionable London during the Roaring Twenties. Having run through her late husband’s fortune after only a few years, Ivy chances upon a millionaire whom she seems to be able to charm—at least at first, before he refuses her further advances. Meanwhile, Ivy must also untangle herself from her devoted lover, a poor but handsome doctor.

Considered by The Spectator to be one of Marie Belloc Lowndes’s best stories, The Story of Ivy was also adapted to the screen as Ivy in 1947, starring Joan Fontaine in the lead role. Lowndes chronicles the significant changes in the culture of post-World War I Britain along with the sensationalism of a murder mystery.