DRAGONWYCK

The author of My Theodosia has used early 19th century decor for a good story, a holding drama and colorful. Miranda, Bible-bred farm girl with a romantic head and a pretty face gets a chance to live her dream when she is sought as companion to the child of a wealthy relative. He is Nicholas Van Ryn, upper New York state Dutch aristocracy, arrogant, handsome, married to Johanna, whom he loathes, Johanna, heavy, indolent, gluttonous. Impressed with the elegance of Dragonwyck, and the dark glamour of Nicholas, Miranda falls in love and after Johanna's sudden death, they are married. Too late she realizes his satanic qualities, his violence, the latent egomania; eventually she faces the fact that he had murdered Johanna and that he was a victim of opium. Her baby dies. She fears that she will be his next victim, and finally, with the aid of a young doctor, she escapes, and Nicholas is killed in a last flamboyant gesture....Originally reported for fall publication last September; since then serialized in Ladies' Home Journal.