THE UNHURRYING CHASE

by H.F.M. Prescott ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 17, 1955

An earlier book than her memorable The Man on a Donkey is here reissued (for the first time in this country), and again the combination of story-telling, scholarship, and a mystical quality that gives the book stature beyond its story, make it a significant achievement. The setting this time is 12th century France, when the countryside was harried by petty feuds, forays and acquisitive lords, and dreaded mercenaries, who spared none in their path. Richard of Poitou, later Richard I of England, is among the most powerful and most acquisitive of the lords, and-in seizing a minor fief, Rifaucon, wins the enmity of its heir, young Ives, on the verge of knighthood at the hand of the old Count of Angouleme, Again and again, as Angouleme- and later other lords- make peace with Richard, Yves is forced- he thinks-to change his loyalties to avoid serving Richard. Lower and lower he sinks in degradation. Landless, he cannot receive his knighthood; his bitterness makes him fearless in making enemies; he does not even know love when he finds it and his romance with Audiart, as bitter for other cause than he, is checkered indeed. But dominant, despite his efforts to silence it, his conscience tells him he belongs to God. And at the end, a priest once encountered, meets him again, wins his confession, and gives him as penance back to the Richard he now knows he loves- not hates-with a Crusade as his pilgrimage of faith. Here we have a sort of reverse side of the ""hound of heaven"" in a story of the largeness of understanding and forgiveness. Not easy reading, but rewarding.

Pub Date: May 17, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1955

Categories: FICTION