A LEGACY

by Sybille Bedford ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A tangle of families is the center for a child's narration of life in Germany in pre-World War I days. Julius Maria von Felden, of Baden, Catholic and privileged, evades parental and social traps until young Melanie Merz, whom he meets on the Riviera, with her equally privileged Jewish upbringing and relatives accept his outrageously decorative existence to countenance marriage. Melanie's death does not free him from the Merz involvements and there is still his family, always threatened by mentally unbalanced Johannes, now a captain in the Army, to try to ensnare him. There is too the English Caroline, whose passion is given to another, who is his second wife and the mother of the teller of this tale, and who, about to walk out on him, is sucked into the scandal of Johannes' death,- an event which is the means of unclosing the secret of an earlier, unpleasant tragedy- laden event. A history, often heard third-hand, seen through many eyes, this twists through protected households, twines around contrasting cultures, and decorates conflicts within and without a Prussian tempered era for an obliquely viewed portrait gallery of the times with a memory drenched but remote accent. Tangled -- and tantalizing.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION