The Romance of Atlantis

At the age of twelve Taylor Caldwell wrote a romance of Atlantis, the legendary kingdom supposed to have perished long ago beneath the waves. Her grandfather, believing a child of twelve incapable of such mature and detailed work - unless she had "borrowed" it from elsewhere - ordered the manuscript instantly suppressed. While Taylor Caldwell went on to write other works, her first novel lay torgotten and ignored for over sixty years. Now that it has come to light again the author, in a postscript to this book, concedes that her grandfather was right. She did "borrow" the descriptions of Atlantis - but only from the past, a past which she somehow felt that she herself had experienced. All her life Taylor Caldwell has been haunted by the fate of Atlantis and by the story of its remarkable and beautiful Empress Salustra, the heroine of this book. Sometimes she has even dreamt that she was Salustra, walking through her marble palace, seeing snd smelling the exotic plants and trees, filled with a nameless sense of dread and forboding ... Jess Steam, a noted American author, was sufficiently impressed by her vivid experiences to persuade her to revive the manuscript, and helped her revise it for this new edition. * Salustra looked up wildly, her face flushed. ‘My lord!’ she cried. ‘Let us drink! But do thou give me thy wine. It is a little custom in Atlantis for friends to exchange in this manner.’ She was leaning across the table, her eyes sparkling, her lips gleaming, the goblet extended in her hand. Grimly Signar gave her his goblet, and took her own. ‘To thee, my lord!’ she cried. ‘To Atlantis, and to the etemal gods!’ She put the glass to her lips, drew back her head and would have finished it in one gulp had not the Emperor suddenly reached forward and dashed the cup from her lips. ‘Why didst thou desire to die?’ he asked. ‘I knew the winę was poisoned. I would not have swallowed it. But why didst thou spare me? And why didst thou desire to die in my stead?’ * First published in 1975 by William Morrow & Company, Inc. William Collins Sons / Fontana Books *** THE ROMANCE OF ATLANTIS brings to life all the dazzling splendor of that lost kingdom. However, Atlantis is threatened by powerful neighboring states. Tension increases when the ruler of an adjacent kingdom bids to marry the empress. If she marries him, Atlantis would be safe from invasion. Yet, such a marriage contradicts the deepest feelings of her heart, the secret wisdom of her lineage, and her sacred trust as queen.