GOYA, Rebellious Genius

This is a dramatic and colorful novel based on the life of Goya, and in view of the publication of Charles G. Poore's Goya (reviewed above) it should arouse considerable interest. It is a full-blooded, vigorous story, overwritten in parts, but conveying the sense of pace and adventure of the troubled days when Napoleon's army invaded Spain and the Spanish court hovered between extravagant display and fear. From a poverty stricken boyhood, through a struggling youth, Mrs. Chapman traces his wanderings, his adventures, his roistering -- with ever the goal of study with the master in Madrid. The novel revolves around his loves, and his life falls into two parts, both dominated by his women, -- first Pilar, the village girl whom he abandoned but whose love saved him from his worst self; second his sensational career in court, imperilled by his love for the lovely duchess. A romantic tale, with a close enough adherence to the main outline of his life to make it thoroughly worth while on that score.