SUMMER AT THE CASTLE

by James Wellard ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A summer at a castle in Ferona, Italy, sets a modern problem of conscience in an old frame and is an attractive drama of romantic impulses and ethical concerns. For the Baron and Baroness Sorano engage Julian Ward, an Englishman of 36, as a tutor for their children, Andrea, 21, Nila, 18, and Timmy, whom they find ""uncouth and uneducated"". And Julian, who is escaping a love affair with a married woman whose husband is now a war hero in a bath chair, is also escaping from a post in bacterial warfare where he is on loan from the R.A.F. Self-contained, and for the most part self-assured, Julian is still susceptible to Mila and her youthful, sensuous Mediterranean allure; they fall in love, and Mila breaks off her pre-arranged marriage to a wealthy boy. But the castle is only a temporary refuge- not a retreat- from the past; Julian prepares to return to England and the charge of treason that he will face; but he cannot reconcile the premise of genocidal warfare, and in his repudiation, is branded as a Communist and jailed. There's an idyllic quality here, of a siren summer and the south wind of love, which still cannot escape the political realities of our time. Seductive.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1953

Categories: FICTION