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THE MORTAL GODS by Maurice Dolbier

THE MORTAL GODS

By

Pub Date: March 29th, 1971
Publisher: Dial

Those who remember Mr. Dolbier's Benjy Boone (1967) might enjoy this curtain call about a British acting family at the turn of the century featuring a kind of old-fashioned, beamish bonhomie suggested by paterfamilias Robert Jovian's name. He's otherwise known as ""The Gent"" and he's in the middle of staging a successful production of Romeo and Juliet with a total unknown from the provinces, almost as wan as Ophelia, as Juliet. Then there's the return of his soldier son to meet an undignified accidental death on the streets; the romance of his late-blooming Diana with a literary man; the ouster of son Archer, for a time only; and most royal acclaim when Robert is knighted toward the close. . . . While the characters are given to Good Gods and Bless Yous, the story itself barely rises above a stage whisper.