LYDIA BAILEY

by Kenneth Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 1947

History may dispute the picture Kenneth Roberts gives of two minor wars in which we played inglorious parts. But Roberts sets his story in the frame of fiction, through the adventures and misadventures, in love and war, of one Albion Hamlin, young American lawyer, whose seal for the rights of man overrode his prudence and involved him first in the, at that time, lost cause of the Alien and Sedition Trials in Boston, 1799; then in investigation of the French Spoliation Claims in Washington; and-for the greater part of the book- in the West Indies, where fortune forced him to play a part in the drama of L'Ouverture's and Dessalines' struggle to establish Negro supremacy against the attack of the forces of Napoleon- and later in the abortive effort to reestablish Hamet in Tripoli and oust the pretender, Joseph Karamanli. This Tripolitanian War is one of the blots on our scutcheon, but- despite the betrayal of our allies, by Lear, acting for the State Department, that war goes down in history as the defeat of the Barbary pirates. Roberts has told a good love story against a difficult and often confused background. He has thrown light on a dark corner of our early history- and written good adventure as well. Not as deep rooted characterisation as in Oliver Wiswell, but will appeal to the Shellabarger and Costain markets.

Pub Date: Jan. 2, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1946

Categories: FICTION