The Unwilling Vestal

The Unwilling Vestal

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Title: The Unwilling Vestal
Author: Edward Lucas White
Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6070] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 1,
2002]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE
UNWILLING VESTAL ***

Project Gutenberg Etext The Unwilling Vestal by Edward Lucas White
Project Gutenberg editor's note:
First published in 1918, this book went through sixteen printings before
it ceased to be a money-maker for its publishers. It provides a
fascinating glimpse into a world most of us know nothing about.
It has been slightly re-edited for ease in reading as an e-text. The
author's spellings have been left alone even when they are incorrect in
English English, American English, and Latin.
End PG editor's note.
THE UNWILLING VESTAL

The Unwilling Vestal A Tale of Rome under the Caesars
JACKET BLURB:

EDWARD LUCAS WHITE Author of "El Supremo"
This book presents, for the first time in fiction, a correct and adequate
account of the Vestal Virgins, their powers and privileges, as well as of
many strange Roman customs and beliefs.
The author combines the power of writing a rattling good story with a
sound and full knowledge of conditions of the life which he is depicting.
Mr. White brings to the history of Rome all the picturesqueness and
power which made his South American novel, "El Supremo," so
remarkable. The result is a vivid pageant of imperial Rome and Roman
life at the height of its power and splendor.
End of Jacket Blurb
PUBLISHERS' NOTE

Readers of who are not acquainted at first

hand with the lighter and more intimate literature of the Romans may
be surprised to discover that the lights of Roman high society talked
slang and were interested in horseracing. Most writers who have tried
to draw Roman society for us have been either ignorant or afraid of
these facts. The author of is neither. He
presents to us the upper class Romans exactly as they reveal themselves
in the literature of their day; excitable, slangy, sophisticated and yet
strangely credulous, enthusiastic sportsmen, hearty eaters and drinkers,
and unblushingly keen on the trail of the almighty denarius. In a word,
very much like the most up-to-date American society of to-day.
The Publishers feel that it is only fair that it should be made plain that
the great difference between the Roman society folk of Vestal> and those appearing in other novels is due to the author's
thorough acquaintance with the people and the period about which he is
writing.
Incidentally, the Publishers wish to thank Mr. C. Powell Minnegerode,
the Curator of the Corcoran Gallery of Art of Washington, D. C., for
his permission to reproduce Leroux' beautiful painting "The Vestal
Tuccia" for use on the wrapper of the volume.
[wrapper not available - PG ed.]
End of Publisher's Note
PREFACE by author

The title of this romance is likely to prejudice any reader against it.
There exists a popular delusion that fiction with a classical setting is
bound to be dull and lumbering, that it is impossible for it to possess
that quality of bravura slangily denominated "punch." Anybody will be
disabused of that notion upon reading this story.
< It now sounds even more stilted than the classical language does.>>
On the other hand, after having read it, almost any one will be likely to
imagine that a novel with so startling a heroine and with incidents so
bizarre cannot possibly be based on any sound and genuine knowledge
of its background; that the author has conjured out of his fantasy not
only his plot and chief characters, but also their world; that he has