BEGGAR'S REVOLT

May I confess I was (1) confused and (2) bored by this so- called novel of the revolt of the Netherlands from their Spanish overlords and Papal rule. The story is thinly spun, with overmany characters and little central focus, against a background of little-known historical events dealing with the Spanish Inquisition in Holland, the French-Spanish wars, the supervision of Margaret of Parma and the undercurrent of unrest and discontent and fear and jealousy and plots and counterplots. Perhaps a brief foreword giving a survey of the interrelation of the church and state, of Spain and France and The Netherlands and Flanders, of the historical characters whose part in the picture is taken for granted would help clarify it for the readers.