Kezzy

Against the background of Britain's infant railroad business and the intricate family feud introduced in her first novel ( Stacey's Flyer ), Burns resumes the story a generation later. Although young Daniel Pymer seethes at his father's shortsighted clinging to the horse-driven coach as the prime means of passenger conveyance, it is not until he meets Keziah, a girl of the ``navvy'' class, that he envisions a future apart from his retrograde family. Kezzy, made pregnant and dismissed by her parson-employer but imbued with a fierce determination to surpass her so-called betters, assumes a role unique for her sex and becomes an entrepreneur, taking advantage of coach and train to start a travel business. Daniel, aspiring hopelessly to an upper-class marriage and remaining remarkably obtuse to Kezzy's ardor for much of the busy novel, is eventually saved from himself. Victorian class and sexual mores mesh with the growing industrial consciousness of early 19th century England to provide a realistic setting for this compelling love story. (Dec.)