The Sign of the Cross

by Wilson Barrett

Wilson Barrett (1846-1904) was born William Henry Barret, and changed his name when he went into acting. He was also a theatrical manager and playwright, and staged many popular melodramas.

Genres: Historical Fiction

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Wilson Barrett (born William Henry Barrett) was an actor and playwright, finding particular success in melodrama, though his most successful single work was the historical tragedy The Sign of the Cross, which opened at the Grand Opera House of St. Louis, Missouri on 28 March 1895, and was directed for the screen by Cecil B. DeMille in 1932.

Reviews

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novelization of a popular melodramatic play set in the time of Nero's purge against the Christians.

Fortunately in this version the prose was toned down. There's nothing more unedifying than a melodrama in togas, not even a romance in lederhosen.

Marcus Superbus, Prefect of Rome is smitten by both the beauty and faith of a self-sacrificing Christian girl named Mercia. ('Could it be that he was so easily swayed by a pretty face, a pretty fable?') Nero is suitably seedy, Agrippina and her courtesans more pleasingly wicked than I expected.

Any writer who fails to make good on a story set in this time and place ought to give it up. Compared to something like Anthony Burgess's In the Kingdom of the Wicked this Victorian effort - written by a diminutive actor from Chelmsford, my kneck of the woods - was necessarily pretty tame, but far from terrible.

As for the end, rest assured that no lions were left hungry.