CHILDREN OF CAPRICORN

by William Abrahams ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

The Children of Capricorn is a precisely written but basically dull story about a family dominated by the spiritual legacy of a once illustrious ancestor. Capricorn was the home, in western Massachusetts, of Charles Carlisle Field, a philosopher- poet whose reputation, by 1934, had fallen into a decline. His house, books and papers and all the artifacts of his existence are kept intact by his daughter, Flora Moffatt, who lives only for her father's memory and the assurance that her nephew and her daughter will carry on the ""Field tradition"". The nephew, Andrew Field, a graduate student at Harvard, is a spineless individual only too anxious to do Flora's bidding, being incapable of imagining alternatives. On the other hand, the daughter Pauline, is a rebellious sort (not too rebellious though -- living on her mother's allowance) who discovers she hasn't enough talent for a career in music and wants only to live an ordinary life. Flora's death causes their crisis -- which they resolve as expected, Andrew entombing himself amidst the Field trappings and Pauline going off with the truck gardener's son. This could only be of interest to the most persistent kind of reader --50 years ago.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1962

Categories: FICTION