THE IDES OF MARCH

The author of The Bridge of San Luis Rey commands a definite and fairly predictable market among the intellectuals. The choice of this new novel as Book-of-the- Month reserve, may again widen that market to include more general readers. Wilder a gift for evoking the classic past- and in this he makes one almost believe that he has unearthed documentary records — letters, extracts from diaries, communications to bring into current immediacy those months before the assassination of Julius Ca One follows the social pattern of life in Rome,- the entertainments, the intricate of jealousies, the personalities that held sway. Through Caesar himself, who proves more the thinker than the doer, through his wife, with her doubtful loyalties, through Cledia and her brother, the poet Catullus, Brutus and his mother, Mare Anthony, Cleopatra, an aunt of Caesar's (perhaps the liveliest figure of them all), through reers and spies and hangers on, the reader sees the various facets of life, suspicion, conspiracy, worship, love, hate, attitudes, points of view, philosophy, comments on art and literature, on social changes- the whole blending into a rich tapestry. An interesting and original bit of creative writing- a tour de force, perhaps, but provocative.