BRIGHT CAPTIVITY

Price, whose prodigious output runs to some 36 books (including inspirational titles and the Savannah Quartet) proves with this new novel that, at 74, she's still going strong. Bright Captivity marks the launch of a new historic trilogy, set around l800 on Georgia's atmospheric Golden Isles, a locale she's plumbed before and knows intimately, since they're her home. Her heroine is Anne Couper, the pampered daughter of the Scottish planter, John Couper, who considers himself trapped in the ``peculiar instituion'' of slave owning by the necessities of the plantation system. He's one of Price's sensitive and slightly hysteric males; when the British sail into the islands during the War of l8l2 to liberate the area's Negroes, the news that a number of his slaves willingly abandon him disheartens John gravely. Eighteen year old Anne's head-over-heels romance with the British lieutenant, John Fraser, comes as another shock, though Papa Couper manages to loosen the apron strings just enough to let her wed the handsome officer. All would be well, since John's a decent sort of man, were it not for the fact that he can't quite make up his mind about what he wants to do with his life. His indecision leads to several unsettling years for the couple in London, while John chases rainbows and Anne bears him a daughter. But in the end, he bites the bullet and determines to grow up by accepting Papa Couper's offer of a tidy parcel of land back in Georgia. Suprisingly little happens in this Chatty Cathy of a novel, but the characters are rendered with careful detail. They are classic Price creations, sweet as gumdrops through and through, sure to whet the appetites of loyal fans for book number two.