Books: Winthropologist

THE WINTHROP WOMAN (586 pp.)—Anya Seton—Houghfon Mifflin ($4.95).

There are those who like history and those who like novels; both classes of readers are apt to be depressed by historical novels. This form of literature, which requires a strict convention of disbelief, is perfectly exemplified in The Winthrop Woman, a bulging package of period color, religion, sex, sadism and witchcraft. It is written in what can only be called Williamsburg prose—the settings and costumes are as authentic as money and research can buy, and if the hands and heads that stick through the quaint...