Dawn’s Early Light

Focuses on the Williamsburg inhabitants whose lives are caught up in the tumult, intrigue, and violence of the Revolutionary War.

Elswyth Thane has a faculty for bringing other times and other places to life, and her picture of Williamsburg, when the unrest leading to the Revolution was under way, is no exception. An English youth, newly orphaned, is taken into the friendship of the town’s leaders, given a helping hand and a job to his liking. He has met and loved the girl his closest friend loves – and attempts to stay loyally away from her; he scarcely thinks of a lovely available girl, who can see him; and he befriends a ten-year-old twin girl, who, with her brother, becomes his shadow, at school or in free hours. There’s a good picture of the fast-thickening war clouds – and eventually Julian realizes that his roots have gone deep, his loyalty is to the colonies, and he enlists. Sprague finds that his lady love is true to him, and Julian discovers that Tibby, his child playmate, has grown up over night, and holds his heart in her hands. Even the lovely Regina finds compensation for Julian’s defection. All’s well that ends well.