MACLYON

From the relatively fine-tuned approximation of 18th century mannered comedy, Vice Avenged (1971) the author has slipped into well-traveled ways, in this Scots/American-colonial tall tale which gallops through familiar female erotic fantasies. First off there's the horseback abduction of Mary Elizabeth in Scotland by rugged young Diarmid MacLyon, marriage Kate/Petruchio style -- and rape. Then after Diarmid's father disinherits his son by de-kilting him, there's English atrocities and a gang-bang for Mary Elizabeth. Then Diarmid, now an English prisoner, gets his -- via prison, near execution, starvation and a virtual festival of beatings, particularly when he is bought in Georgia as an indentured servant. Betimes Mary Elizabeth, now totally committed to her husband of a day, peddles her seemingly unblemished body in a series of transactions to locate Diarmid, which she does finally. Mary Elizabeth remains fresh as an ox-eyed daisy and at the reunion it's poor Diarmid who needs the helping hand, before he returns to riding bareback in breezy kilts. It all amounts to what de Vries called ""simple and heartfelt lays"" -- lots and lots.