THE KING AND THE QUEEN

Symbolism and psychological objectivity in this novel of the siege of Madrid in 1936 for a background of a duchess and her gardener. The duchess displays her dislain for the servant class by receiving the gardener while nude, but the next day when the Republicans take over the palace, she finds that he is her protector. Driven by his memory of her nakedness, the protector- gardener sheds the role of servility, becomes her equal as a person and finally she acknowledges him as her only friend when she dies. Somewhat Gothic in inspiration -- towers and winding passages, and a midget in the basement fighting rats in the food supply -- but with a primary impact of a psycho-graph of Freudian analysis against a class war.