RALEIGH'S EDEN

A long, full, historical novel of North Carolina, preceding and during the Revolution, with enough splash in the pattern to commend it even to those a bit sated with the too generous products of recent years. Filled with pictures of the gracious life combining with the new country's ways, the problem of the non-ruling classes, national and regional struggles, racy figures from Flora MacDonald to pirates to slavers, there is enough here to provide almost every kind of reading, adventure, romance, history, politics, economics, and personal emotional tangles. The main thread follows the life of Adam Rutledge, his invalided and destructive wife, and Mary, the woman he loves. How Adam, tied to his land and attempting to escape political action, is drawn in and becomes one of the Albermarle Iron Men to protect his fellow farmers. How also, after banishment from the colony, he travels westward and concerns himself with the problems of the nation about to be born. And how, finally, after Mary's husband is hanged for treason, and his own wife dies, he and Mary are free to start a new life together after Cornwallis' surrender. A big book, but holding throughout, and an answer-all for many tastes.