The Mortal Storm Has Gale-Force Power

In The Moral Storm, Phyllis Bottome rejuvenates the tired brother-against-brother theme by putting it into the setting of Nazi Germany. The novel derives its power from the contrast between the loving concern the Nazi boys show to their Jewish stepfather and the self-absorption of their Jewish half-sister. The family is divided by politics, but united by love.

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Rebecca hasn’t lost her fascination

Rebecca is Daphne du Maurier’s most famous novel, and with good reason. …the novel takes the standard features of the Gothic mystery romance and puts them in twentieth century garb with spine-tingling success.

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Solid but Stolid Saga of Texas

And Tell of Time is the tale of a Texan, Cavin Darcy, who marries his Georgia cousin at the end of the Civil War and takes her to live on his farm on the Brazos. It takes over 30 years for Lucina to regard Texas as home. The background of And Tell of Time is much like that of Gone with the Wind. The white landowners suffer from laws that favor the blacks so the Northerners can exploit all Southerners, black and white.

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Fictional account of 1847 scandal still a sensation

As a child, Rachel Field was curious about her great aunt, Henriette Desportes, whose tombstone told the date of her death but nothing of her life. In All This, and Heaven Too, Field fleshes out the facts she later learned about Henriette’s sensational trial for murder with details she imagined.

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