SO GREAT A QUEEN

by Paul Frischauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A re-telling, with much amplification and modernization, of the biblical story of Esther, her foster-father, Mordecai, and how she became the Queen of Queens. The Jews here are the ""fair-skinned foreigners""; Theres, after winning Vashti when she is deposed after her refusal to appear naked before the King of Kings, pays for his ambitions to succeed the ruler by death; Esther attempts to avoid being chosen by the King but her way-wardness catches his fancy and she realizes that in her new position she can be of help to her people; Mordecai is the means of warning the King twice against uprisings; and Haman, throughout the villain, is the leader of the Popular Program, demanding the persecution of the fair-skinned people, intent on revenge on Esther, aiming for control of the empire and the means by which the ceremony of Purim came into being. This underlines the contemporary parallels:- the power of racial and religious prejudice, the imminence of war and the devising of new weapons, the decadence of the ruling class: the story throughout makes use of present-day vocabulary and thought-patterns. Not perhaps as telling as previous treatments of biblical themes but interesting in its comparisons and its approach to life of that period.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1950

Categories: FICTION