[These notes were made in 1982; this novel was first published in 1901:]. A Roman centurion, in his spacious underground tomb, "is not dead, but sleeps" - and is awakened after 14 or 15 centuries by a young English squire who is - what? His reincarnation? his double? half of his soul? - the metaphysics are unclear. One thing is very clear - the girl the Squire loves is also the Roman's long-lost love reincarnated, and the two end up in a duel. I found the writing in this book very attractive. Arnold had a knack for imaginative natural description, and made his narrator both plausible and sympathetic. Lepidus he made a sort of hero - in psychological terms, anyway, the kind of man the narrator/protagonist wished to be - vital, athletic, larger-than-life. Pleasant reading.
