Cirrus@Austlit

'The novel tells the story of an Arcadian shepherdess named Irene, and of her reincarnation in a modern day. The first Irene begins In a dream world of sun and flowers and centaurs, progresses to be the mistress of Syrian provincial governor (In some ways the early part of the book reminds one of John Masefield's 'Basilissa'), and then, meeting Ezra, a disciple of Jesus and His teaching, is won to the new religion and perishes in a lion's den. The twentieth-century Irene Is an out-of-work actress, who, driven almost to the verge of suicide, meets a sect of reformers, inspired by Christian principles, and led by another Ezra. This time it is Ezra Prentice, a hunted man with a price on his head: a preacher of pacifism and a hater of war. We have it hinted that, with this Ezra, too, this Irene goes to her destruction for the Christian ideal. So that, running through the book's lush language, its over-embroidered style, and its sensuality, there Is a message. It is a message which gains force because of its difference from the background against which it is set. And it is a brave doctrine, if a dangerous one, in these times.'

Source:

'We Still Have Lions' Dens', Newcastle Sun, 18 January 1941, p.4.