UNTIL THE COLORS FADE

A long until--freighted by dull characters dimmed by their own more colorful Victorian luggage. The time is around 1850 and there are scenes of industrial and political unrest in the mill towns; the gentry pursuing their sporting pleasures; domestic strife within the stately homes; nautical procedures aboard the last of the great sailing ships; and for a grand finale, reenactments of the military maneuvers and the carnage of the Crimean War. All of which proves to be more vivid than the characters: the nouveaux riches Braithwaites; Lord and Lady Goodchild, Harry and Helen if you will, living beyond their means until Harry's death brings all those debts to the fore; an Admiral Crawford, and his sons and daughter, trying to come to terms with a wavering code of behavior. And then there's the faintly androgynous presence of interloper-artist Strickland who is Helen's lover, both confidant and antagonist to the Crawfords, and serves to move the story forward if move it does--laboriously and with interminable explanations.