THE DAUPHIN'S SON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 272, 16 November 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE DAUPHIN'S SON.

BARONESS ORCZY'S STORY. Baroness Orczv has, in "The Uncrowned King," (Hoddcr and Stoughton), given to the world what is said to be the authentic history of the ill-fated Dauphin of France and his wife and son, the rightful Louis XIX., King of France. It is in the form of "a true romance of the 'GO's now first given to the world." The material for the book wasbequeathed to the authoress by a titled relative who was an important personage in the entourage of the Emperor of Austria, and was contained in the private diary of Cardinal Bencventy, Primate of Austria. It was left to Baroness Orczy on the specific undertaking that it should not be opened for 20 years after the donor's death.

Tho world will not be so much stirred by tlio "disclosures" as the authoress appears to expect, but a readable story has been woven around the information contained in the prelate's diary. It is stated that the son of Dauphin was not slain but was spirited away to an ecclesiastical institution, and that he married tho widow of a British cavalry officer who already had a son. A Spanish lady, she is shown as hating her first husband, with whom her marriage Was most unhappy, and her antipathy to him extended to his offspring, and was accentuated when a son was born of her marriage with the heir to the French Throne. An interesting character study is provided in the personalities of the two sons, and t lie romantic element is woven into the narrative by the introduction of a beautiful young Frenchwoman, daughter of a fabulously wealthy financier, who agrees to sponsor the cause of the return to the throne of "the rightful king" «s soon as the latter has signed a contract of marriage with the financier's daughter. But the Royal scion becomes infatuated by a vivacious prima donna, and the closing chapters deal with crises arising out of the blasting of the plans of an ambitious mother and a scheming father.