FOR TIME AND ALL ETERNITY

In a story more distinguished for its energy than its style, the author has created a memorable heroine in Nancy Corey Scott. She had grown up inside the sytem of plural marriage and she hated it. Joel Scott, the elegant Bostonian Gentile who had come to Ammon, Utah, after the Civil War as a schoolmaster, knew when he married her how much she loathed ""The Principle"" of the religion she accepted. He studied Mormon theology as a pastime which led to his self-conversion and a priggish piety that had Nancy annoyed and amused. She didn't fear the possibility of another wife until, on the eve of the federal drive against bigamy in the 1880's, Joel ""honored his priesthood and magnified his calling"" by seeking out another wife. Anticipating Nancy's consent, he had made the girl pregnant and thus, by physical fiat, Nancy was saddled with the system. Spunky, rambunctious, self-reliant Nancy threw him out for a time but she also loved him and this led to her sacrifices and humiliation in the days when multiple marriage turned sour for Mormon men. The background material is part of the author's heritage and his emphasis on the hypocrisy in ""plurality"" will make sensitive present day Latterday Saints squirm. Readable-- although its length requires ""time and all eternity"".