THE SPLENDOR STAYS

In theory, one thinks of the women and girls of the early 1800's staying at home and doing embroidery and running their households. Here is a story which bears witness that, just as our ships carried our wares far away, so too it was fated that some women should live beyond their period. The story of the Hart sisters opens in the backwater of Saybrook, Connecticut, but the marriage of Ann to Isaac Hull, hero of the War of 1812, results in three of the sisters seeing not only politics-ridden Washington, but turbulent South America, where one sister, Jeannette, had a hopeless love affair with Bolivar. Boston, New York, New Haven -- through the seven sisters a panorama of life in the first quarter of the century is painted. Famous figures cross the stage. And the sisters stand out individually, to the end. An unusual novel.