Books: Rambling Rex

MONARCHS-IN-WAITING by WALTER J.P. CURLEY JR. 238 pages, Dodd, Mead. $7.95.

They are descended from Robert the Pious and Gontran the Rich, from Suleiman the Magnificent and Cathal Crovedearg of the Wine-Red Hand. They belong, variously, to the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Moslem and Orthodox-both Greek and Russian-churches. They are, almost without exception, reasonable, personable -and, it goes without saying, well-bred. They consider themselves the legitimate claimants to the thrones of 14 European countries where royalty has gone out of business.

The putative monarchs include a Jesuit teacher-priest, a publisher, a salesman for Lockheed Aircraft and the nephew of Terence O'Neill, the former...

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