RAGS OF GLORY

by Stuart loete ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 1963

Link this with The Turning Wheels (the memorable story of the Boer trek- 1937) and one sees Cloete as more than a novelist, concerned with a people and an era- one sees him as a gifted historian. The Boer War comes into immediate reality- even to the endless miles of territory covered, the futile marches and counter- marches- and above all the abysmal stupidity which characterized it from initiation to finality -- an inglorious war, from which the British wrung their ""rags of glory"". loete has given us all of this, but he has done it in human terms against the background of the events of the war and post-war and the men and women who were involved. The human factors were not all of them historical -- and the shifts from side to side- from South Africa to England and back -- make it possible for him to uild many plots, romances and adventures into the warp and woof of this tale. However the characters that dominate are these:- the sons of widow Catalina Maria Elvira du Toit, and how they grew to-man's estate in the years of war; and Captain John Turnbull of the Hussars with his ""light of love"" Elsie -- taken from a whore- house and remade into the woman he could marry. The threads of these stories link together many other minor plots to make a colorful and often poignant whole. The book is tremendously long -- at times one bogs down in minutiae of campaigns -- but ust in time Cloete catches imagination and interest- and curiosity- once again, down to the last paragraph.

Pub Date: Aug. 25, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963

Categories: FICTION