A Population of One

Willy (Wilhelmina) Doyle has two objectives: to get a job teaching and to marry somebody as promptly as possible – or at the very least to have an affair. This latter plan is labelled The Project. Our heroine is undeterred by the fact that, at 30, she is starting both projects a little late.

The first objective is easily accomplished when Willy gets a job teaching in a university English department, which suits her very well. Progress on The Project, however, is more difficult to measure, in...