A MANDRAKE ROOT

by Janet Diebold ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Joanna Geyer's father was a Professor of Jurisprudence whose influence on his students had been profound. But he left as heritage to his daughter, a morbid fear of sex -- an awareness of hidden currents in herself. Probably this was at the root of her strange relations with the mysterious and cursed Ambassador Halvor Morkeslot, who lived in grandeur remote from the present day world in a castle near Copenhagen, and who used the fact of his having been Prof. Geyer's student as reason for pursuing Joanna to the school where she was working and including her in the seminar which he held for law students at the castle. Buildup of atmosphere and mood is convincingly done, but one has a sense of the story leading to a climax which does not quite come off. The breakup of the seminar -- the midnight threat of attack on Joanna -- her awakening to the abnormality of her relations with the Ambassador and of where her real devotion belonged -- all come to a head in a photographic finish out of key with the whole.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1946

Categories: FICTION