CARAVAN

Molodrama, with a highly emotional trim -- and not by a good deal, ranking with her best work. Regency and Romany romances through the life of James Darrell, who achieved success as a writer only to be bitterly thwarted in his love for one woman and to thwart in revenge the gypsy girl who loved him. From early boyhood, James revealed his love of vagabondage and fantasy, his imaginative gifts with the pen, and his devotion to Oriana, the girl who lived nearby. But Oriana preferred security and married for money; while James went to Spain and fell in with a gypsy clan. Robbed and almost killed, he was nursed back to life by Rosal, who loved him and tricked him into a gypsy marriage. Freed eventually by her death, he returned to England, met Oriana again, and they found brief happiness together. But hope for permanency was circumvented when she was accidentally killed. Rental library romance in costume-period style.