At the Mercy of Tiberius

Augusta Evans Wilson, (1835-1909) was an American Southern author and one of the pillars of Southern literature. She wrote nine novels: Inez (1850), Beulah (1859), Macaria (1863), St. Elmo (1866), Vashti (1869), Infelice (1875), At the Mercy of Tiberius (1887), A Speckled Bird (1902), and Devota (1907). Given her support for the Confederate States of America from the perspective of a Southern patriot, and her literary activities during the American Civil War, she can be deemed as having contributed decisively to the literary and cultural development of the Confederacy in particular, and of the South in general. At the Mercy of Tiberius tells the page-turning story of Beryl, accused of murdering her grandfather whom she had just visited and with whom she had a confrontation. All evidence pointed to Beryl who stood to gain if the old general died. His will, which stated that everything he owned was to go to his adopted son, was missing and so everything would go to Beryl's mother.