Cliquot: A Racing Story of Ideal Beauty
Kate Lee Ferguson
9781465662866
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
“Cliquot,” a new love romance from the pen of Kate Lee Ferguson, a rising young Southern authoress of the Amélie Rives school, is full of passion, piquancy and breathless interest. All through it possesses that quality which the French call chic, which gives it that flavor which everybody likes. Neil Emory’s domestic drama—for he is a man with a past in his history—and his deep-rooted passion for Gwendoline Gwinn, as well as the fascination exerted upon him by Cassandra Clovis, an actress, are intermingled with an exciting tale of the race-track in which the foremost figures are Cliquot, a fleet but unmanageable racing stallion, and the mysterious jockey who rides him to final victory after the superb horse has been the death of all his predecessors. The scene is laid in the South and the agreeable volume gives a most charming glimpse of fashionable Southern society. The racing incidents are very graphic and will take a firm hold on all admirers of horse-flesh. “Cliquot” is written in a sprightly style and is just the book to raise a sensation and be talked about in every direction. “Cliquot,” a bright and peculiarly interesting novel in which burning love and a wonderfully exciting episode of the race-course are the chief ingredients, is the production of Kate Lee Ferguson, one of several young Southern authors who have recently sprung up to cultivate the fruitful field in which Amélie Rives has worked her way to notoriety. It is a strong and spicy romance, always fresh and crisp, with never a superfluous line and very interesting in the very first paragraph. The locality is the South and the characters typical Southerners. Neil Emory, a man with a past, is the hero, and the heroine is Gwendoline Gwinn, who, while admired as a belle, petted by her mother and apparently fond of her ease, is yet a woman to do and dare. A theatrical element is cleverly introduced in the shape of two actresses, Cassandra Clovis and the mysterious “Kitty Who Laughs.” The book takes its title from a thoroughbred racing stallion, capable of great things on the turf but addicted to killing his jockeys. A boy is at last found who rides him to a successful finish and about whom some very singular developments are made. The description of the race which the stallion wins is spirited and vivid to a high degree. Some of the incidents are exceedingly naturalistic and striking. It is not too much to say that “Cliquot” will be read with avidity and that it will be discussed with considerable ardor, for, while it is undoubtedly absorbing, it touches upon some topics which most writers have seen fit to avoid. But the best way is to examine and find out for yourself.
