Art on an Epic Scale

By LAWRENCE BIEMILLER

Two years ago Brown University's special-collections library was given a curiosity so unusual that librarians aren't exactly sure what to call it, so big that displaying it is almost out of the question, and so breathtaking in scope that it would make Cecil B. DeMille jealous. It has a dashing guerrilla hero, a love story, guns, swords, and bayonets, an avalanche, torture, a growling lion, battles at sea and on land, and a final glorious victory — all in glowing color. And it