This story is concerned with the reincarnation of a woman
and two men who in the eighteenth century lived in the Castle of Vyerolles in France. It might be argued that the world was not at all improved by this resuscitation, and that the attractive Marianne, her husband, and her lover had better have remained dead. In fact, Trollope's emendation of the motto on a hatchment would be appropriate. This ran " Resurgam " and was corrected to " Requiescat in Pace," freely translated as " You'd a deal better stay where you are." That Miss Spinny contrives to invest her story and her personages with charm and verisimilitude may, taking the nature of the plot, be called something of a feat. The young bookseller, James Paterson, who forms the third of the re- appearing trio, is far more attractive than the woman and man who have the claim of kinship to be found at Vyerolles. He, however, has no apparent right. Notwithstanding the many coincidences necessary in so fantastic a plot, the book possesses whimsical and graceful qualities which will carry the reader on to the end.
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