A ROSE FOR VIRTUE

by Norah Lofts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 1971

Miss Lofts' sore beset queens and princesses are all spirited, sensible, usually with a secret flame to tend, and this time there is another composite royal personage -- Hortense, the daughter of Josephine, sister-in-law as well as stepdaughter of Napoleon, wife of Louis, King of Holland, and mother of Napoleon III. Miss Lofts' Josephine is lovely, petal-soft, gracious, and her Louis is insufferable and unstable. As for Napoleon, here he is a kind of Lewis Stone with traces of Henry VIII and the Presence is felt throughout. It is also felt by Hortense, who although wed, however reluctantly to Louis, and passionately involved with Charles de Flahaut to whom she bore a son, discovered that her heart belonged to stepdaddy. It was Hortense who shielded him from others during epileptic attacks and who welcomed and comforted him during those last dangerous months. But most of the story is involved with traditionally female matters -- birthings, family marriages, domestic intrigue, and those dark 'delicious' moments with the clandestine love. Miss Lofts makes it all seem close, familiar, breathless, and bountiful. One more good lady -- for all those others in the Lofts' audience.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 1971

ISBN: 0753181169

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION