19 FEBRUARY 1887, Page 24

Souvenirs of Military Life in Algeria. By the Comte de

Castellane. Translated by Margaret Josephine Lovett. 2 vols. (Remington and Co.)—The Count Caatellane went out as a volunteer to Algeria when he was seventeen, served as a private in a Zonave regiment, and won his epaulets on the field of battle. His story of his campaigning extends over about three years, 1843.46, and is interesting not only for its own sake, but because it brings in the names of not a few soldiers who afterwards won renown for themselves elsewhere, as St. Arnaud, Chaugarnier, Cavaignao, and McMahon. The mistake bna been to give the book in its entirety. The African campaigns are interesting to Frenchmen as history, and for theta they may well be related in historical fashion. To the average English reader they would be more advantageously presented as military exploits. From this point of view, many of the details here given are superfluous. One volume, containing the cream of the Count's experiences, would have been a good book ; these two are somewhat tedious.