ROMAN WALL

by Bryher ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 1954

The author of The Fourteenth of October and The Player's Boy applies her serene and muted style to a story of Alemanni attacks on the Roman frontier in Helvetia in the third century A.D. Before the threat of attack becomes reality, the governor of the isolated province lulls himself with gladiatorial games -- his city falls. Demetrius the trader knows the signs of coming destruction and heeds the message of an escaped centurion. He speeds to Orbs to save the patient outcast and soldier Valerius and his sister Julia. And through Demetrius, Valerius learns that the woman who caused his fall, the goddesslike Fabula, is now a priestess -- he turns to the loving Veria to give her the tenderness of an endearing love, with his consuming love for Fabula set like a star in his memory. There is a quiet penetration of character and national mood here which places Bryher's work in a special, evocative category of historical fiction.

Pub Date: May 16, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1954

Categories: FICTION