QUICKSILVER. SECOND BOOK OF THE LADY TREE TRILOGY.

London: HarperCollins, 1999. 464 pp, 9 1/2" H. "Quicksilver is part romance, part psychologicl thriller. Richly evocative and subtly erotic, it gives a fascinating insight into the myth of the werewolf. Raised in exile as an English gentleman trying to forget a tragic past, Ned Malise wanted only to be left alone with his music, his rich daydreams and his love for Marika. But at the age of thirty-three, he suddenly began to turn into a wolf. Or so it seemed in 1638, when werewolves were still tried and hanged like witches. On the run from hunters with dogs, Ned takes refuge with the woman he has loved from a distance all his life, who must herself in turn make a terrifying decision. Then Ned finds that rescue can be even more horrifying than execution. Set in England and Holland, in a world where medieval superstition still warred with the emerging experimental sciences of the Age of Reason, (it) moves from court intrigue to back-street quacks, from the healing power of music to the deadly hunger of intellectual ambition. From the horror of Ned's first unravelling by his Wolf, by way of one of the strangest yet most satisfying love stories seen outside myth, it propels the reader to an astonishing but exhilarating end - (and) stretches our understanding of the beast that lurks in man." Dust jacket has very light edge wrinkling. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Very Good+.