Anthony Lyveden
Anthony Lyveden is a 1921 adventure novel by the English author Dornford Yates (Cecil William Mercer). It was first published in monthly instalments in "The Windsor Magazine". The book was Mercer's first attempt at a full-length novel, and was succeeded by "Valerie French" which continued the story of the main characters. Plot. Anthony Lyveden DSO, a destitute ex-officer, is forced to take a job as a footman at the Gramarye estate. The estate's owner, Colonel Winchester, becomes mad and leaves Lyveden in charge under a power of attorney. The situation drives Lyveden himself to  madness. Background. The author was not a happy man at the time, his father having committed suicide early in 1921, and Mercer's biographer AJ Smithers reports a suggestion that at this date he was not far from suffering a nervous breakdown. He defied "The Windsor Magazine"'s tradition that every episode should end with a lovers' meeting, though he was pressed hard by the magazine's editor. Illustrations. The illustrations from the "Windsor" stories by Norah Schlegel (1879-1963) were not included in the book version. Critical reception. Smithers considered "Anthony Lyveden" to be a book of varying quality , and too episodic to be truly called a novel. He criticised the characterisations, suggesting that a reader might with some justice think the hero a pompous prig, one of the young women a humourless, suspicious creature, and the other a trollop "manquée". The original dustjacket included the following quote from the "Glasgow Citizen" -