Perhaps once in every generation a historic novel appears which is to powerful, so totally gripping, that it becomes universally acclaimed as a classic. The Mantle is destined to be such a book. The reader will be completely absorbed in this sweeping saga of one fearless man facing a decaying nation, a sadistic queen and a totally sensual religion. In this brutal yet magnificent story—set in the stark landscape of ancient Israel—William Stephens vividly portrays the heroic adventures of Elijah. All alone this rough-hewn prophet confronts Queen Jezebel in her malicious scheme to supplant the worship of Jehovah with the sensuous fertility cult of Baal. All alone God’s servant, Elijah, turns the tide of Jewish history. Elijah . . . Jezebel . . . Ahab—names charged with electric emotion! Here the electric charge is transformed into throbbing, explosive reality—names become flesh and blood people—as the reader lives with them in the terrible presence of frenzied, demonic priests and enslaved masochistic devotees of Baal. The Mantle has been translated into five other languages.This novel is identical to Prophet of Fire and Elijah except for title.
