Via Crucis By F Marion Crawford
HC Special Edition March 1904
A romance of the times of St. Bernard and of Queen Eleanor, both of whom figure in the story, the hero's fortune being interwoven with those of the gay young queen. The book brings out the enormous contrasts of the Middle Ages, the splendor of the great French and German barons with the abject misery of the poor of that age, besides being a vivid representation of a picturesque period.
F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was born in Italy, the son of the Irish-American sculptor, Thomas Crawford, and a sister of Julia Ward Howe, and was one of the most popular novelists of his day.
With a cosmopolitan education (in Italy, America, England, and Germany) and extensively traveled (including a stint in India as a newspaper editor), Crawford was the living embodiment, for many, of the late 19th-century genteel tradition.
His wide range as a traveler has contributed doubtless to another characteristic quality: his strength in unexcelled portraits of odd characters and his magical skill in seeming to make his readers witnesses of the spectacles.