Earthquake at Como

MADAME SOLARIO (374 pp.) -/Anonymous& -Viking ($3.95).

After observing the new guest, the hotel doctor remarked ominously: "Geologists speak of faults when they mean weaknesses in the crust of the earth that cause earthquakes . . . There are people like 'faults' who are a weakness in the fabric of society; there is disturbance and disaster wherever they are."

Subject of his observation: the beautiful, slightly mysterious "woman with a past" who appears, unannounced, amid the pastel parasols of a fashionable resort, bringing with her a whiff of evil -that exquisite cliche beloved by turn-of-the-century authors from Tolstoy to Henry James. She has now been revived by a determinedly anonymous author, in an engaging and disturbing period piece. The lady is called Madame Solario, and her setting is Lake Como in 1906.

If the aloofly adorable Madame Solario gives any hint of calamity, it is the enticing fragrance of a classic -almost old-fashioned -scandal. Twelve years before, in Paris, when she was barely 16, Natalia Solario (nee Ellen Harden) had been seduced by her stepfather. Her mother died of heartbreak as a consequence; her brother Eugene, after shooting and nearly killing his stepfather, had been shipped off by the family to South America. Natalia herself, swiftly married off to an obliging nobleman, had shed her spouse before coming to Como for the 1906 season.

Final Reckoning. Floating graciously through Como's golden villages and classic villas, Madame Solario is pursued timorously by an Englishman, Bernard Middleton, and tenaciously by a barbaric Russian, Count Kovanski. Natalia Solario does not stoop to conquer. Yet her adroitly detached existence ends abruptly one evening when brother Eugene returns, penniless and impenitent, from his twelve-year exile. At this point, Madame Solario shifts from waltz time to offbeat fandango.

The outwardly dashing and handsome Eugene is a perverse, embittered prodigal who soon pollutes the lakeside idyl. Affronted to find that Natalia has stepped unscarred from the ruins of their childhood, Eugene exacts subtle penance from his sister. Capriciously, he urges her to become the mistress of a Roman grandee. Then, he virtually thrusts Natalia into the arms of malevolent Count Kovanski. In a savage bedroom scene, Kovanski and Natalia both recognize Eugene as a pitiful parasite. Later that night the prodigal brother himself stumbles into Natalia's arms for a final, incestuous reckoning.

Kid-Glove Restraint. Though Natalia flees Como, she decides that fate has left her no choice: she is now inextricably linked with her brother. Behind them, the ill-fated pair leave broken hearts and a suicide.

With the exception of Eugene Harden, the characters in Madame Solaria are lightly sketched; Natalia herself seems at times as insubstantial as the rustle of a petticoat. Yet the author of this period piece has a sure feeling for time and place, and for the rigid standards of behavior that made discreet intrigue flourish. The book treats the difficult theme with a kid-glove restraint that conveys the atmosphere of tension mounting to tragedy.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.