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THE MOONLIGHT JEWELERS by Albert Vidalie

THE MOONLIGHT JEWELERS

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Pub Date: April 16th, 1958
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy

A fuzzy bit of transitory romancing this is sparked by the murder of a traveler in watches whose niece, Ursule, breaks away from her respectable family to join the man accused of the crime, Lambert, an unwanted nobody. Their hideout in the woods makes her a creature of the wild through his teachings; their sole contact is Jacot, an old pal of Lambert's in previous poachings and other illegalities, and their paradise, learned and loved through the harshness of winter and the abundance of summer, is invaded by his reports of the world outside. With one of the valuable watches as telltale evidence planted on a wandering basketmaker, Ursule's little world is wrecked for Lambert is betrayed by Jacot and returns to a safe way out so that Ursule, returned to her village, awaits the next rebel to free her. The rigid closeness of French provincialism in contrast to the free, wild ways of the nonconformist, the idyllic life versus the respectable, are enclosed in a passionate mistiness. Limited.