Stranger in Two Worlds by Hugh Clevely (1959)

Stranger in Two Worlds
by Hugh Clevely
Publisher:  Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
Copyright:  1959
Book Club Edition

In this sweeping, full-blooded novel, a practiced storyteller relates an odyssey which moves from the old hemisphere to the new and spans the period from the Sepoy Mutiny to the famous Chicago fire.  There is a galloping rush to the narrative and a vividness in the description of individual scenes which places this book in the great tradition of English sagas of adventure.

As a small child Justin Kelly knew hunger, disease, and constant fear of death in the siege of Lucknow.  His mother had eloped with a sergeant in the British army and destiny found them in the stricken city at a time when extermination of the last British inhabitants seemed almost certain,  Justin was to lose both his parents during the siege and to his utter bewilderment was sent to Ireland, where a cold and polished grandfather undertook his care.  It was a polite and rigid society.  The gentry could not completely accept a boy whose paternal grandfather had been a tavern-keeper, though his mother was of their own.

Nor could they forget the scandal which had rocked English society at the time of his mother's elopement.  That scandal had involved young Lord Bracca, the notorious duelist and philanderer.  Now, to their astonishment, Lord Bracca practically adopted Justin as his son and introduced him into his own world of dissolute frivolity.

Neither of his father's people nor of his mother's, neither aristocrat nor peasant, Justin was determined to surmount the confusion of his heritage and search for a way of life that was uniquely his own.  His search led him through an entanglement with a beautiful young Fenian firebrand, through near ambushes and escapes, through a descent into the Dickensian slums of London, and finally to America.  There at last, on the ashes of the Chicago fire, he was to build his career.

This is a novel of solid characterization and authentic background.  It is set in a fascinating and turbulent time in history and it is told with a tense excitement which holds the reader.

Condition:  Used.  Hardcover.  Dust cover is discolored and shows wear, creasing and tears in the edges.  Spine of dust cover is lightened by sun exposure.  Pages are tanning by age.  Previous owner's name is blacked out with date written on the front endpaper.  Binding is beginning to split, but pages are so far in tact.  There's an envelope pasted to the front endpaper as a way to keep track of her books.

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