Rosy Glow Dept.

LORD VANITY (467 pp.)--Samuel Shellabarger--Little, Brown ($3.95).

"Stir up the fire, Lucio . . . You have the whip and the little knife? Good . . . I don't believe he's Jack-fool enough to resist." But Richard Morandi, a bastard descendant of Stuart kings, is not one to let himself be castrated in front of his sweetheart without fighting back. Since it is Venice and the 18th century, Richard has a knife of his own up his sleeve, and he knows how to use it. Many a lesser novelist would be out of climaxes after Richard dispatches his enemy, but Novelist Samuel Shellabarger has lots more.

Dashing Richard, lugged off by the police and separated from his sweetheart, Maritza, now has to face such things as torture, chains, life imprisonment in the galleys, sudden freedom, and the encompassing arms of a passionate French countess. Face them he does, with fortitude and kisses. Next, commissioned in the British army, he ships to Canada, outwits Montcalm, helps Wolfe win his great victory at Quebec, returns to England a hero and is assigned by Pitt himself to a delicate diplomatic mission in Paris. There, naturally, he finds his steady old flame Maritza, still possessed of a local reputation for chastity. Happy of heart, Richard and Maritza leave the vanity of Europe behind and sail for the New World to raise Americans.

Dr. Kinsey has confirmed what Novelist Shellabarger knew long ago: a lot of women get a rosy glow from romantic yarns. If Lord Vanity does as well as some earlier Shellabargers (Captain from Castile, Prince of Foxes), it should easily outsell Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.

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