General Crack

General Crack is a 1928 historical novel by the British writer Marjorie Bowen, written under her pen name of George Preedy. The author tours a palace named the Chateau when a strange and otherworldly portrait of the poet and soldier General Ketlar catches her eye. Excerpt: «OF recent years, after a long period of neglect, the historical novel seems to have come into its own once more. Quite recently we have had such wonderful examples of historical romance as Feuchtwanger's „Jew Suss“ and „The Ugly Duchess;“ while now Mr. George Preedy has entered the lists with an exceptionally well-written and finely conceived story of eighteenth-century Europe…»