Anthony Lyveden
# 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.

## Chapters

| Chapter | Book Title | Windsor Title | Date | Volume | Issue | Pages | Illustrator |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| I | The Way Of A Man | In The First Place | January 1921 | LIII | 313 | 101-116 | Norah Schlegel |
| II | The Way Of A Maid | In The Second Place | February 1921 | LIII | 314 | 205-220 | Norah Schlegel |
| III | The Voice Of The Turtle | In The Third Place | March 1921 | LIII | 315 | 311-324 | Norah Schlegel |
| IV | The Golden Bowl | Livery Of Seisin | April 1921 | LIII | 316 | 411-425 | Norah Schlegel |
| V | An High Look And A Proud Heart | A Month's Wages | May 1921 | LIII | 317 | 517-531 | Norah Schlegel |
| VI | The Comfort Of Apples | Gramarye | June 1921 | LIV | 318 | 3-16 | Norah Schlegel |
| VII | Nehustan | Grey Matter | July 1921 | LIV | 319 | 109-124 | Norah Schlegel |
| VIII | The Power Of The Dog | Ex-Parte Motions | August 1921 | LIV | 320 | 223-239 | Norah Schlegel |
| IX | Vanity Of Vanities | The Return Of The Spirit | September 1921 | LIV | 321 | 337-355 | Norah Schlegel |

## 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 -

* "There is no man writing to-day who manages to infuse a story with so much wit of the airy, bantering kind, and behind it all there is often a serious note. Not only that, but when Mr Yates pauses in his stream of witty things, pauses but for a moment to describe a scene or a woman, in a few sentences he paints such a picture that the lover of fine phrases and words must need go over it again for the sheer joy of reading it."
