Victorian Sisters

Taylor, British author of The Edwardian Lady, in this book attempts a multiple biography, hampered by the skimpy material on her subjects. They were the Macdonald sisters, who rose from ""humble origins'' during the repressive 19th century to become the wives of historic personages. Eldest of the four girls born in the mid-1800s, Alice was a witty intellectual who made a home in India for her husband John Lockwood Kipling and their son Rudyard, who inherited her literary gifts and Celtic mysticism. Less fortunate Georgianalittle ``Georgie''overcame the suffering caused by her wimpy, faithless spouse, pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and quietly advanced his career, while remaining her family's mainstay as well. Taylor has less to record about the third and fourth daughters: Agnes, wife of Sir Edward Poynter, moved in glittering society but was unhappily married; and Louisa, whose marriage to industrialist Alfred Baldwin also was unsatisfactory, evolved into a successful writer and her son Stanley became prime minister. Pictures not seen by PW. BOMC and QPBC alternates. (August 5)