THE STRANGE WOMAN

Perhaps Ben Ames Williams has a secure enough market to take even this book in his stride. But it seems to this reader that he is off on a completely new tangent. Against an historical backdrop -- Bangor, Maine, from the War of 1812 to the Civil War -- is told the story of a woman who brings tragedy to the seven men who come to know her as she was. She rehabilitates and then ruins her father; her old husband and his son bear the brunt of her cruelties and passions; she is defeated in her efforts to conquer her second husband, and takes it out on their sons; she turns fanatic on drink and slaves, drives her sons from home, and establishes herself in the town's belief in her goodness, while secretly making a will to wreck her husband. From early Bangor days, through land speculation, lumbering, etc. Jenny villains her checkered way.