Lovers

All the stops on the romantic novel diapason are pulled out in this lush fiction from the author of Sisters and Cousins . Nelly Briggs is the uninhibited, voluptuous beauty who, having escaped from a rat-ridden London hovel by becoming a maid in a Victorian brothel frequented by the well-born, embarks on a grand amour. Because she witnessed the unintended death of a beautiful prostitute at the hands of Viscount Robert Leckford, Nelly is shipped off to Paris. There she blossoms as a nude model and popular Montmartre cabaret singer. There, too, she meets the Viscount's artist-brother, Matthew, in self-inflicted exile to save the family name. When Matthew is called home after his brother's death to assume the title, he is unaware that Nelly is carrying their child. Matthew marries an American heiress whose money will keep the Leckford estate in repair; Nelly becomes an international star. Although predictable and apparently hastily assembled, the novel has in Nelly a sexy heroine cast in the generic mold. (Apr.)