The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 47

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE-TIMES, Sunday, April 2,1978 5-C History Just for Fun 'History," said Edmund Gibbon, is a "register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind." Suppose we concentrate on places, wars, biographies, and literature. ii fAVO AV jf't-'i- -O ill flu IPI fHf'-icg Id l' ill ifi k'H IMa-m Sli if If jf HOW ARE THINGS IN CONNEMARA? Beautiful, Say the Urises likeness of Napoleon, resolutely astride a big white horse: "Through a wretched, interminable night the rain bucked down. Then the skies lightened, the rain eased off and spirits began to rjse. At about 6 o'clock in the morning Wellington left his temporary cottage Sixteen pictures and diagrams later, Chapter Fifteen begins with a study of the same Frenchman, disconsolate, seated by a table on which a candle gutters: "Napoleon had almost to fight his way through the rabble of Lawford reminds us of the defeated French shouting "Sauve qui peu," but not of that indomitable Irishman Wellington's remark, "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." Re indomitable Irishmen, Chapters 13 and 14 may be read as a commentary on the mad guide's remarks about the Waterloo cyclorama in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Next.

Mention of "India in the days of Gunga Din" on the jacket of William Moore's Bayonets in the Sun (St. Martin's, $7.95) prepares us for a Kipling-uesque novel. Its historical accuracy is confirmed by consulting the essay in the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Second Sikh war Punjab Campaign 1848-49." The Commanding General of Her Majesty's forces, a hero of the Peninsular Campaign and Waterloo, was yet another indomitable Irishman, Lord Hugh (Paddy) Gough (from Co. Limerick). After Paddy's great triumph over the natives, the Duke of Wellington (from Co.

Dublin) hailed him as "affording the brightest example of the highest qualities of a British soldier." What with Bengal Lancers charging gallantly, elephants hauling cannon, Sikhs in turbans, sure it's a daring spectacle. But, aside from Gough, the officers are odious; the NCOs and enlisted men, admirable. The poor Sikhs are simply cannon fodder. In England today they'd be dismissed as "coloureds." Thirdly, in Wellington's day Britannia ruled the1 waves. Does she still? Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Graf Spee, Bismarck: Do you remember how those German naval craft were destroyed by the British during the last World War? In The Ludendorff Pirates: "A Novel About the Hijacking of the Largest German Battle Ship of WWII" (Doubleday, authors Al Ramrus and John Shaner would have us pretend the German vessel met that fate while undermanned on a test run.

The mission had been entrusted to a unit of 12 commandos led by Viscount Vyvvyan Beatty (no kin of Britain's Anglo-Irish World War I Admiral). They are delivered by a navy patrol boat to a submarine which sets them adrift in the Baltic on a rubber raft. Disguised as commander and surviving crew of a sunken U-boat, they are Under the category "places" comes Jay Higginbotham's Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Louisianne, 1702-1711 (Museum of the City of Mobile, $25). "Head of the local history section of the Mobile Public Library," he is descended on his father's side "from Vincent Alexandre and on his mother's from Jean-Baptiste Baudreau de Graveline, both of whom helped found" the city. Like many of the colonists, they were Que-becois.

The rest were French. Their commandant, Montrealer Le Moyne de Bienville, had problems keeping peace between the Canucks and the arrogant French (diplomacy). And, though they were eventually driven off, English pirates looted their stores (violence). Some settlers married Indian irls (love interest). Finally, Dartaguiette d'Iron was sent out from France to investigate Bienville (intrigue).

Dartaguiette decided the site of Fort Louis was subject to flooding every spring and the action ends with the colonists paddling 26 miles downstream where Mobile now stands. What magnificent material for a summer pageant a la Florida's Cross and Sword or The Lost Colony! Next. Robert Lewis Taylor's novel A Roaring In The Wind (Putnam's, $10.95) is narrated by its picaresque hero, 17-year-old Ross Nickerson. A Harvard drop-out, in 1857 attracted by reports of gold, he travelled from Cali- i 5 'f, TAYLOR A Picaresque Montanan i if plucked out of the waters by the Ludendorff along with an American, sole survivor of another wreck. There's plenty of suspense, violence, heroism (everything but love interest).

Just pretend! But perhaps, like Carlyle, your sentence is the "history of the world is but the biography of great Try the following three books for sighs. Albert Fried, professor of history at the State University of New York, began John Brown's Journey: Notes and Reflections on His America and Mine (Doubleday, $10) in 1967. So popular is the subject, he says, there have been "five major studies since 1970." The jacket attributes "a new and revealing perspective" to the book. It surely is revealing about Fried who links his hero with draft protestors, disrupters of classes at Columbia University, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Jesus Christ. However, his conclusion, written more recently, says we must not associate Brown "with the murderous terrorist groups of recent years (e.g., For when Brown "did commit heinously inhumane deeds that is, Pottawatomie it was purely for ideological or political reasons." He "wasn't just another bloodthirsty ideologue and omelet-maker like the Palestine Must Fried's students agree with this to pass? Next.

"Off with his head so much for John Dudley," might be an informa tour it for a small price. See the room in which Winnie was born. See his modest grave alongside his ancestors in Bladen. J.ondon-bom Watney patriotically concludes in "Britain more of these great political families" have survived than elsewhere. Literary history, though less popular than that of places, wars, or persons, has admirers: for example, Lewis Carroll's The Wasp in a Wig: A "Suppressed" Episode of Through the Look-ing-Glass and What Alice Found There, with a preface, introduction and notes by Martin Gardner (Clarkson N.

Potter, As Gardner says, nowhere else does Alice's "character come through so vividly as an intelligent, polite, considerate little girl (than when) extreme youth confronts extreme age." That is, the Wasp, victim of mandatory retirement, reacts suspiciously to her courtesy. Convinced she is seriously interested, he speaks sadly of the consequences of being rejected. 'Would you mind saying it in she asks very politely." Modestly he replies, "It aint what I'm used to." But after "a few moments" he recites five polished stanzas con dolore. Maybe Hegel was right when he said "people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it." But it sure is fun to read! FRANCIS J. THOMPSON.

Dr. Thompson teaches literature at Tampa Preparatory School. Book Views And Reviews fornia toward the southwest corner of the territory which became Montana. By-and-by he reached Bannack, 1862; then, a year later, pushed on to Alder Gulch where a famous discovery had been made. There, Virginia City, named after the one in Nevada, arose.

It succeeded Bannack as capital, and preceded Helena. In Taylor's 1959 Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Travels of Jamie McPheeter, he fictionalized sources listed in an elaborate biography. He repeats the technique here. However, Ross, Taylor's severest critic, confesses: "I may have stressed feckless-comic aspects at the expense of horrifying." To wit: One long sequence tells of bloody encounters between Vigilantes and Road Agents. Gullible Ross is fairly suspected of being in cahoots with the latter, but those "comic aspects" spoil a most suspenseful situation.

Third comes a coffee-table book, Jill and Leon Uris' Ireland: A Terrible Beauty, The Story of Ireland Today with 338 photographs including 108 in full color (Bantam Books, It is a by-product of Trinity, of which its author, Leon, said: "A crash course in history sets up a novel." In their preface to Ireland the Urises declare: "What we have here is a social, historical, and political It has two parts: "Book One The Republic" and "Book Two Ulster." Jill's photographs are a joy forever, but unfortunately the prose accompaniment is offensively anti-Protestant. Leon should have followed the example of a shrewder Israelite, surrounded by an angry Belfast mob demanding his religion. He protested: "I'm a Jew." "Are you a Catholic or a Protestant Jew?" "Orthodox" was his final soft answer. The best-selling hardback edition of Ireland cost $24.95 when published, 1975. So this comely paperback is a bargain.

But perhaps, like Milton's Moloch, your sentence is for open wars? If so, you may enjoy Napoleon: The Last Campaigns 1813-15 (Crown, $12.95) by Lt. Col. James Lawford, "senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst." In this vast cy-clorama Lawford devotes two chapters to Waterloo. Thirteen begins with a same thing as On the other hand, influence is not always exerted benevolently, thus an evil genius such as Hitler meets the criteria for I have not confined my list to persons who have affected the present 'situation of mankind. Influence on past generations was taken equally into Because this book is concerned with individual, personal influence, I have tried to divide the credit for a given development in proportion to each participant's contribution.

Individuals, therefore, are not ranked in the same order as would be the important events or movements with which they are A striking example of this is my ranking Muhammed higher than Jesus, in large part because of my belief that Muhammed had a much greater personal influence on the formulation of the Moslem religion than Jesus had on the formulation of the Christian religion." Hart seems to have at his disposal a very sensitive instrument, such as a fire-gauge to measure influence of a person; not only the present influence can be measured but he can set the gauge back and measure past influence. Perhaps he can also turn the gauge forward and measure future influence. It must be very accurate for the author came up with this reading for Beethoven: "I have been strongly influenced by the fact that most persons spend far more time listening to music than they do looking at painting or sculpture. For this reason, I think that musical composers are generally more influential than painters or sculptors whose eminence in their own field is equivalent. All in all, it seems appropriate to rank Beethoven roughly halfway between Shakespeare and Michelangelo." As Mr.

Gilbert says in his lyrics to The Mikado: I've got a little list Of Society Offenders Who might well be underground Who never would be If I should take it upon myself to compile a list, Hart may very well make the list but it will be for a different reason than that of a "most influential person." JOSEPH HIPP. Mr. Hipp is head of the special collection department at Tampa Public Library. Balanced on a Razor's Edge This Lister Deserves Place on Another List tive subtitle for Hugh Preston's relatively historic novel Feast in the Morning (St. Martin's, It is scheduled to begin a series which will trace the fortunes of the Dudleys "through 200 years" to Thomas, "the 17th century Governor of Massachusetts." Nevertheless, it is complete in itself.

In Part March, 1544-January, 1547, John, alias Viscount Lisle, and Edmund Seymour, uncle of king-to-be Edward VI, are great friends. After Henry VIII dies (Part II, January, 1547-January, 1552), Edmund, the new king's Protector, quarrels with John, a Puritan. John's religious conviction captures Edward VPs fancy and the Protector is beheaded. But the young King dies and in Part III, January, 1552-August, 1553, is succeeded by the Bloody Queen, Mary, who has no use for Protestants so John himself is axed. Third, Sir Winston Churchill (16207-1688) boastfully traced his ancestry back to 1066; Sir Winston (1847-1965) traced his back to American Red Indians.

John Watney in The Church- ills: Portrait of a Great Family (Gordon Cremonesi, $17.95) limits himself to the intervening 300-plus years. Between these two Winstons, the most famous Churchill was John (1650-1722) a son of the earlier, and the first Duke of Marlborough. Today, the eleventh, b. 1926, has inherited the title. The ducal residence, Blenheim Palace (don't miss it when you visit England) was built for John.

But such is the upkeep now, anyone can and Christine rented the big old 32-room house, the trunk moved in with them. They used only 10 of the rooms the rest were weather-worn and badly eroded. One even had been taken over and become a part of an apple tree. The trunk, and a few other of Christine's possessions, went into the garret. The space actually was a sort of attic to the attic, and Christine made it even more inaccessible by having a locksmith put a new lock on the door leading to it.

But it is the contents of the trunk which eventually bring Michael and Christine to the final act of the play they seem to be living. Did it, as Michael had suggested to the bride on their honeymoon, contain the body of her father? Was she, indeed, a vampire, carrying with her minish her efforts to make the twins a permanent part of her life, much to The novel begins with both Nadine and Dianne at the age of 21. Although best friends, their personalities are opposite in every respect. Nadine is content only to have children and remain a homebody whereas Dianne is more concerned with achieving her goal of becoming a lawyer. During post-adolescence, Nadine exhibits nymphoma-nic tendencies, while Dianne remains relatively committed to one love affair.

After these formative years, both women experience disastrous first marriages before they marry the twins, and it appears they marry for reasons as different as their personalities. As one review stated: "Rossner has written an astonishing and powerful novel about the passions that tie people together in and out of marriage. It is also the remarkable story of a woman whose dreams and hungers are like ours, but who goes beyond where we would dare to go, attempting to satisfy them in an outrageous, if fascinating manner." The astonishing conclusion of Attachments left me with the same unsettled feeling that I experienced after reading Goodbar. I would recommend LOVERS LIVING, LOVERS DEAD, by Richard Lortz. Putnam, $7.95.

Michael Kouris was a 48-year-old member of the faculty at a New England college when Christine, 30 years younger, became one of his students. It was not unusual that she caught his eye. Most of the females in his classes did, especially if they were young. Her delicate beauty was, however, beyond his resistance. It mattered not that she could not write an intelligent essay (she sometimes wrote a word backwards) for his course on writing.

He was beguiled by the young woman. Four days later they were married. And when they honeymooned in Greece, Christine insisted they must take along her trunk. It was a huge, heavy thing, with locks at each end and the middle, which Christine insisted on keeping close to her. And on their return, when Michael knif- -t i li'-1! lit i yifii 'it) 'I'ininif As Unsettling as Mr.

everywhere the man she had loved since birth? Richard writing of Lovers Living, Lovers Dead, weaves a tale filled with eidrich patterns. His Christine, and finally even Michael and their twin offspring, are drawn ineluc-tably to the mysterious Chauffeur who pays evanescent visits to their driveway. The contents of the trunk will shock some readers. What follows Michael's opening of tne trunk is more than some will want to believe. But, as Lortz finally concludes, "Something like that must have happened." It is a book powerful in places, dainty in others, and always balanced on a razor's edge between what we know and what we think.

KEN MUS-SON. Goodbar this book for the reader who enjoys living out his wildest fantasies in literary form. LILA CAMPANELLI. Ms. Campanelli works in Hillsborough Community College's office of admission and records.

ROSSNER Fascination Become Obseliion 4 111 THE 100: A RANKING OF THE INFLUENTIAL PERSONS IN HISTORY, by Michael H. Hart. Hart, $12.50. As someday it may happen That a victim may be found, I've got a little list, I've got a little Everybody loves lists. The above quatrain was a list apparently written by the Mikado of Japan (according to my informant, Mr.

Gilbert). Since the advent of the Guinness Book of Records and the Wallace's Book of Lists, making lists and reading lists have soared. Now, dear reader, Hart has made a list: The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History and a biographical sketch of each of the persons on the list. Some segments of the population will no doubt feel neglected. There are only two women on the list, Queen Isabella I and Queen Elizabeth I.

Where is Queen Victoria or Eleanor of Aquitaine? As far as I can tell, there are no blacks on the list. It is disappointing to find why some made the list, with their relative "rank" over others on the list. For example, Hart makes the following statements about Thomas Edison: "But although no one of Edison's inventions was of overwhelming importance, it is worth remembering that he did not invent just one device, but more than one thousand. It is- for this reason that I have ranked Edison higher than such renowned inventors as Guglielmo Marconi and Alexander Graham Bell." I suppose that Hart composed his list by candlelight! Mr. Franklin or Mr.

Jefferson could have made the list with this reasoning of quantity over quality, yet Mr .1 1 1 mi in ma noi maKe me list ana Mr i. i "my idiiKt'u iiuiuuer in importance of his accomplishments. If Thomas Jefferson only ranks the 70th place on the list of most influential people, who do you suppose would be number You're wrong Jesus only ranks number Sir Isaac Newton is number 2 and the prophet Muhammed is number The author has this to say about his choice of candidates for his list: "In composing this list, I have not simply selected the most famous or prestigious figures in history. Neither fame, nor talent, nor nobility of character is the JEFFERSON 69 More Influential? A Full Ration Of Excitement A STRANGER IS WATCHING, by Mary Higgins Clark. Simon and Schuster, $7.95.

A condemned murderer is awaiting execution in the electric chair. A sinister young man has checked into a mid-town New York hotel. A heated debate is taking place on the Today show concerning capital punishment. The link between these three events is the beginning of one of the tightest suspense novels of the last few years. Mary Higgins Clark knows how to take a plot and keep the suspense building.

This book is a masterpiece of careful plotting, involving a psychopathic murderer and a fine gallery of support characters. With summer approaching, light mystery fiction is ready for its annual blossoming. A Stranger Is Watching is fast-moving, virtually guaranteed 'to translate easily into an exciting film. It's a how-do-you-catch-him, race-against-the-clock type, not a whodunit. But it's a fine one.

For those who enjoy tough pathological murder fiction and prefer books to films as I do, I heartily recommend this book. Great literature, no. Exciting fiction, definitely. MICHAEL J. MENDELSOHN.

Dr. Mendelsohn is provost and professor of English at the University of Tampa. ATTACHMENTS, by Judith Rossner. Simon Schuster, $9.95. In Judith Rossner's latest novel since Looking For Mr.

Goodbar, we see a different sort of character emerge. As in her previous work, Rossner again portrays a single woman, Nadine, existing in today's society solely for the fulfillment of her dreams, however strange and extreme they may seem to the "normal" individual. She is originally from the East Coast, transplanted to the glamorous and lethargic pace of California. Nadine convinces her best friend, Dianne, who has remained behind in New York City, to join her in her bizarre plot to meet, court, and eventually marry a set of Siamese twins that have been a part of her fantasy since adolescence. Whereas most people would not pursue such an outrageous scheme from the start, for Nadine, this fascination with meeting Amos and Eddie becomes an obsession that supercedes anything that might be of importance in her life.

The only other event of major consequence is when her loving but slightly eccentric parents are killed in a freak accident in their backyard swimming pool in Los Angeles. This does not di i fi.