This 1949 novel about Attila the Hun is from a deeply Catholic perspective, but a rollicking good tale nonetheless. It involves a clandestine romance between Attila and a Roman princess named Honoria. Later Honoria sends Attila a letter asking when he will come to claim his bride. Attila makes war on the Western Roman Empire trying to get to Honoria, but the ill-fated lovers are destined never to meet again. All sorts of epic battles and tragedy. The parts about Roman politics and the Church, portrayed as completely benevolent, can be a slog to get through, but the action is very satisfying in general. The Huns are savage, cruel and sadistic. They eat raw horse meat. They have no written language or architecture, just tent encampments. They are described as yellow and brown like very old parchment. So it includes the racist stereotypes of "savage" "mongols" common to the literature of the time period. Attila lived from approximately 395-453 and the historical sources for the period are fairly limited. De Wohl had to make a lot up and his spin on things shows a clear bias towards the early Roman Catholics as white and superior, and an admiration for the military skill of the yellow/brown people, but a general impression of them as inferior and uncivilized. ( )