2100 Thaddeus of Warsaw, by Miss Jane Porter (read 20 Sep 1987) This is Porter's first book, written when she was in her 20's and published in 1803. It tells of the grandson of a Sobieski who participates in battle in 1792 in Poland, but then goes to England, where he is in poverty but finds his father and a beautiful wife. The book abounds in old style sentimentality, startling coincidences, and numerous other characteristics of writing of the age. I confess to being enamored of some of these devices: "Surrounded by beauty, she acknowledged its presence, the sweetness of the flowers bathed her senses in fragrance, the setting sun, gilding the height, shed a yellow glory over the distant hills; the birds were hailing the falling dew which spangled every leaf." ( )