Atkerton, B.C.

Atkerton, B. C.

THE JEALOUS GODS, A Processional Novel of the Fifth Century, B.C. (Concerning One Alcibiades)--Gertrude Atherton--Liveright ($2.50).

It was a far cry from the monkey glands of Mrs. Atherton's Black Oxen to The Immortal Marriage of Pericles and Aspasia. But classicism continues to outdo sensationalism, for the new novel concerns a spirited young Athenian who struggled to hold the fickle fancy of his fellow townsmen. Temperamentally he was unfitted for the struggle--one night's drunken debauch culminating in a ribald mock-performance of a religious rite cost him years of exile, to say nothing of his position as First Citizen. Alcibiades took terrible revenge on his city, instigating and leading a Spartan attack--until Athens was forced to recall him. But his restoration was short-lived. Again he was exiled, and again his only companion was the Egyptian princess employed by Persia to plot against him, but compelled by devotion to succor and protect him. The story of their love is vivid against a background of Bacchanalian orgies, momentous gatherings in the Pnyx, subtle intrigues in Persian tents, sea-fights, trireme grappled to trireme.