At the Mercy of Tiberius

by Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

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537 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1887

About the author

Augusta Jane Wilson, or Augusta Evans Wilson, (May 8, 1835 – May 9, 1909) was an American Southern author and one of the pillars of Southern literature. She wrote nine novels: Inez (1850), Beulah (1859), Macaria (1863), St. Elmo (1866), Vashti (1869), Infelice (1875), At the Mercy of Tiberius (1887), A Speckled Bird (1902), and Devota (1907). Given her support for the Confederate States of America from the perspective of a Southern patriot, and her literary activities during the American Civil War, she can be deemed as having contributed decisively to the literary and cultural development of the Confederacy in particular, and of the South in general, as a civilization.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Crimes are referable to two potent passions of the human soul:” malice and money. Augusta Evans Wilson’s At the Mercy of Tiberius is “A sort of poetic justice in the fact that the bride” Tiberius covets, “has become the truest, tenderest friend of the hapless girl whom [he] is prosecuting” for “the wilful, deliberate and premeditated murder” of her grandfather “by striking him with a brass andiron…cast in the form of a unicorn, with a heavy ball surrounding the horn.”

Gentlemen of the jury–and readers alike– “you are solemnly pledged to decide upon her guilt or innocence in strict accordance with the evidence that may be laid before you.” With only a few feet of space dividing prisoner from witness,” the protagonist cries, “At the mercy of Tiberius!”

“Is there any antagonism of facts, which the torn envelope, the pipe, the twenty-dollar gold pieces…do not reconcile?” “When the spirit of revenge is unleashed, Tiberius becomes a law unto himself.” As for our damsel in distress–and under duress–Beryl, “It seems I am always at the mercy of Tiberius.”

That is until “a burst of electricity, some particularly vivid flash of light sent by…God himself–photographed both men, and the interior of the room on the wide glass panel of the door” and after eighteen months of incarceration, “Providence–unexpectedly brought this witness to light.”

As her first prosecutor then defense, Tiberius has “money, influence, professional success, gratified ambition, and enviable social eminence; I have all but that which a man wants most, the one woman in the great wide world whom he loves truly, loves better than he loves himself; and who holds his heart in the hollow of her hand.”

“It was through the fiery flames of prison, and trial and convict shame, that God led [Beryl] to the most precious crown any woman ever wore, my husband’s confidence and love…Was I not foredoomed to be always at the mercy of Tiberius?”

[Leah Weaver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why doesn't the arch of my eyebrows and a loose strand of my hair exude the strength and glory of my womanhood? Like, how even is that fair? If you've read books like this before, you know exactly what I'm talking about! I can really appreciate old books written in the style of their era, but I found this one to be a little excessive. However, that's not to say that I didn't enjoy the book at all. She made it interesting in spite of the verbose descriptions of things both real and mythical.

[Stephen Fodor · Rating 4 out of 5]

very well written, though had some Victorian mystic elements to it, but very good