[1] Bryan de Courcy Cavanagh is an Australian of Irish descent who joins the crew of the yacht Salamandra D'oro, as navigator and pseudo-first officer.

Forty years later, back home in Australia, Cavanagh receives a message from Giulia telling him that Molloy is dead and that she needs his help with a legal matter.

Leonard Ward, writing in The Canberra Times, observed: "It is hardly necessary to state that he is one of Australia's most distinguished and succcssful writers.

After outlining the story Ward noted that it all might sound rather melodramatic, but West is such a superb story-teller, such a master of the language, that the credibility of the tale is maintained from start to finish.

"[2] In her literary study of West and his work, Maryanne Confoy noted: "In The Lovers, West chose to revisit all the places he had enjoyed in his first love affair with Europe...His travels enabled him to find a home where his inner world of romantic fantasy could connect with his intellectual love of history and take concrete shape in his novels.