SOME MODERN FRENCH BOOKS.*

MUCH historical information, not Parisian only, but in a wider sense French, is to be found in M. Robert 1-Lenard's excellent book, La Rue Saint-Honor& The story of the famous old street goes back probably to the time of the Romans, and for hundreds of years it was the principal street in Paris. Even now the existence of wider and finer streets has by no means robbed it of all its old distinction, It has been the scene of revolutions, the home of great Parisians; its churches and convents were once among the most famous, and the Jacobin Club lived in the old monastery of the Feuillants. The street saw, indeed, much of the horror of the great Revolution; the tumbrils passed along it on their way • (1) La Rue Saint•Honovi: des Oripines a la Revolution. Per Hobert Renard. Paris : Thuile Paul. [5 fr.] —(2) Memoires sur in Cour de Louis XLV. Paz Priori Visconti. Traduits de l'Italien et Publids aye° une Introduction, des Appendices, et des Notes, par Jean Lemoiue. Paris : Cal:mann-Levy. [7 fr. 50 a 1 —(3) Saint-Domingue : la Societe zit la Vie Criotes sous relnoien Regime, 1020- 1780. Par Pierre de Vaissiero. Paris : Perrin. [7 fr. 50 e.] —(4) Dapiens : d'aprls des Documents inedite. Par Thiene Oueuin. Paris: Hachette. [10 fr.1 —(5) Recite des Temps Revolutionnaires 1 d'apres des Documents inedits. Par Ernest Daudet. Paris : Hachette. [3 fr. 50 c.3—(0) La Mort de Mile. Par Pierre Loti, do l'Acaddinio Fmneuise. Paris: Calmann.L,Syy. [3 fr. 50 o.3— (7) La Decouverf a des Grandes Sources du Centro de l'Afrigue. Par le Com- mandant Lenfant. Avec tine Preface do M. Bouquet do In 0 rye. Paris : Hachette. [17 fr.] —(8) Terres de Soleil et de &mimed. Par Ernest Psichari. Paris: Calmann-Levy. [3 fr. 50 ea —(0) Trois Anodes de Chasse en Mozambique. Par G. Vasse. Paris : Hachette. [5 fr. 50 c.)—(10) Une Praneaise an Maroc. Par 1111athilde Zoys. Paris : Hachette. 15 fr. 50 e.1—(11) Aloyse Valerian. Par Edouard Rod. Paris : Perrin. [3 fr. 50 e.1 —(12) La Vie Secrete. For Rdouard Estaunie. Paris : Perrin. r.1 fr. 50 c.j--(13) Lea Detours du Contr. Par Paul Iburget, do l'Academie Frani:else. Paris: Plou-Nourrit. [3 fr. 50 ca —(14) L'Espoir. Par Georges Lecomte. Paris : Fan:toile. [3 fr. 50 c.]--- (1.5) Ovine. Par Osait. Paris: Lemerro. [3 fr. 50c.]—(16) Les Hauls et les Das : Roman de Maws Contempora ines. Par Constantin Photiades. Paris: II. Grassot. [3 fr. 50c.]—(17) Au Comm de La Vie. Par Pierre de Coulovain. Paris : Calmann-Levy. [3 fr. 50 0.]--(1.8) Miznoires duns Vieille litle. Par Road Darin, de VAcademie Frangaise. Paris: Calmann-Levy. 13 fr. 50 cj- (19) Lee Cloches. Par L. Bretheus.Lafurgue. • Paris : oneadorif. [3 Cr. tiO 0.1 —(20) Jean des Brumes. Par Charles Foley. Paris : 011endorff. 3 fr. 50 c.] —(20 //Enfant aux Pourrures. Par Adrian Remade. " Biblicit Niue dos Reoles of dos Families." Paris : Hachette. [3 fr. J —(22 Prelude Feiariqua.,

I

Per Fernand Gregh. Paris : Marcum: do Franco. ft fr. —(23) Mimes et Ballets Ore,,. Par Christian Chorale. Paris: Meseta. j3 r. 50 al to the Place Louis XV. The history of the Palais Royal alone, from Richelieu to "Egalite," leaves little untold as to the social life of more than two marvellous centuries.

M. Jean Lemoine has translated from the Italian Priori Visconti's curious Memoires sur la Cour de Louis XIV. The original author, a native of Varallo, was an odd creative, a successful fortune-teller, something of a charlatan, a popular character at the French Court. The chief value of his book consists in its vivid pictures of society and lifelike portraits of remarkable personages, especially of Louis XIV. himself, whom Priori Visconti greatly admired. It is a question whether the many doubtful stories he tells are to be believed. M. Lemoine in his introduction makes the best of him. The translation, cue need hardly say, is straightforward and excellent.

M. Pierre de Vaissire, the author of more than one interesting book on the old noblesse of France, studies in Saint-Domingue their work as colonisers. It was hardly the fault of those early immigrants, first driven out by Richelieu's repressive laws, later by other causes, if the island of Santo Domingo became a centre of slavery in its most frightful forms. M. de Vaissiere gives an account of the sufferings of the negroes, both on their voyages and under the cruel tyranny of the eighteenth-century merchants and "adven- turers "—who, unlike the earlier settlers, made their fortunes in the island—which surpasses in horror most histories of the kind. The book is full of curious things, and is illustrated from old prints showing the manners and customs of a com- munity which could scarcely exist in these days, certainly not under the flag of a civilised nation. The revolution which ended in the loss by France of one of her finest colonies was largely owing, as M. de Vaissi4e shows, to the weakness of the Home Government, which neither checked inhumanity nor supported its own servants in the preservation of law and order.

Though primarily intended as an educational work, and published in a form to attract young people, M. Guenin'e historical biography of Dupleial may be recommended to any reader. The author has studied his subject in public and private archives, both French and English. With much spirit he tells the stirring, romantic, and melancholy story of the man who tried to conquer India for France, and not only failed, but suffered for years under the neglect and ingratitude of his countrymen. Many maps and illustrations add to the value of the book.

History, biography, and gossip are pleasantly mixed in M. Ernest Daudet's new volume of studies, Beats des Temps Revolutionnaires. Drawn almost entirely from unpublished sources, it is intended by the author to be the first of a series of books dealing with that time of tragic variety. He does not here repeat the actual story of the Terror, except as it touches his characters. One of his best chapters gives the history. of the civil Constitution of the clergy; others tell of various episodes in the earlier life of Louis XVIII. ; others of the Coigny-Hyde de Neuville conspiracy, and of the death of Pichegru. The whole hook is curious and interesting.

The title, La Mort de Philx, which also heads the last chapter of "Pierre Loti's" new book, gives the keynote of its argument,—the destruction of ancient Egypt by the forces of modern civilisation. The subject is too large to be discussed here. No one with any feeling for antiquity can fail to regret, for instance, some of the consequences of the new barrage of the Nile. But the violently Anglophohe tone taken by "Pierre Loti" on every Egyptian question must rather repel English readers of a book which, one need hardly add, is full of beautiful description and generally charming in style.

Among several new books on Africa, Commandant Lenfant's remarkable account of his latest explorations is of the most practical importance. He started in the summer of 1906, with a mission consisting of three officers, an engineer, and four non-commissioned officers, to penetrate the almost unknown country to the north-east of the French Congo, and to trace the sources of the rivers which rise in that high region, some flowing northward into Lake Tchad, others southward into the Congo, others westward into the Niger or the Bay of Biafra. The scientific study of this region of forests, swamps, and cannibals meant even more than the usual hardships of African travel, and was carried through with energy and enthusiasm beyond all praise. Many curious discoveries were made, especially that of a kind of universal language, like Esperanto, taught and spoken by a chosen freemasonry including various tribes and tongues. Commandant Lenfant is a worthy follower of Livingstone and Stanley, the object(' of his early admiration. The illustrations of this handsome volume are of great interest. M. Ernest poichari, a young soldier, the grandson of Ernest Renan, was one of Commandant Lenfant's party, and has published his impressions of the expedition in Terres de Soleil et de Sommeil. The book is extremely well written and full of poetical feeling. The imaginative touches, the gentleness of tone, and the new way of regarding Africa and her problems suggest inherited genius. M. Psichari has a future.

The clever writer of Trois .dnnees de Chases en Mozambique is not only a distinguished sportsman, but a scientific explorer and observer. Big game is, of course, his chief object, but he has also enriched the museums of his country with an immense number of specimens of birds, insects, fishes, plants, shells, and minerals, some of which were actually unknown. Thus M. Vasse's book is a compendium of East African natural history as well as an exciting record of sport.

Une Prancaise au Maroc is an interesting sketch of a country and people not very well known. Though the state and fortunes of Morocco concern France more nearly than Britain, no one can fail to enjoy the lively pictures drawn by Mile. Zeys. Her book has the advantage of a preface by M. Gabriel Hanotaux, who assures us that in its light and agreeable way it is an excellent guide to Morocco.

Aloijae Valerian, M. Rod's new etude passionnelle, is a strong and melancholy novel. It may be noted in passing that most modern French novels, if strong and worth reading, are also melancholy. A sense of fatality, leading to deep pessimism, seems to weigh on every thinking writer. The story of M. Mazelaine and Madame Valerien, his son and her daughter, has no touch of hope to redeem its tragedy. She, who had not been blameless, could not save her child, even by laying bare to her the remorse of years. He, an honest man without reproach, saw himself robbed of his fine son by the modern spirit which calls evil good and good evil.

M. Rod holds back his own opinions and throws little light on his own problems. Do right and wrong exist .P Silence. But some of us will think that the story itself gives the answer.

M. Estaunie's new book, La Vie Secrete, is interesting and well worth reading. It is rather a study in psychology than an ordinary novel. As in real life, each person has his or her own private story, and is thus led in ways quite unexpected and unimagined, even by the nearest friends. The characters are excellently drawn, and the book is both strong and attractive.

The twelve short stories which make up M. Bourget's new volume, Les Detours du Coeur, are equal to his best work in brilliancy and insight. It suffices to read one or two of them to realise how high he stands among novelists ; earcially, perhaps, when he is not bent on proving a doctrine or pointing a moral. This volume has comedy hid tragedy, humour and pathos. If it is a sad picture of society, it is also an intensely clever series of studies in human :nature.

L'Espoir is a rather long but interesting novel; dealing with the state of France, social, literary, artistic, immediately after the war of 1870, in days when the Third Republic was not yet born.

Grine is the very romantic and tragic love-story of a woman who gives up everything, even life itself, with the object of saving her lover, an almost hopeless victim of morphine. The novel, though prettily written, is dreamy and unreal as far as the chief characters are concerned. On the second plane there are more natural figures, one or two of which may possibly have been sketched from life in a society the author knows well.

The heights and depths described in Les Haub et les Bas are those of the life and fortunes of a very ordinary Parisian bourgeois, a cashier at the Bon Marche. An advertisement makes him believe that he is heir to a large sum of money, Ieft by a great-uncle of the same name. It turns out that one letter of the name is different--d instead of t—and poor Auguste Vallart is roughly undeceived. The story is clever and painfully true to life.

Admirers of Madame Pierre de Coulevain will enjoy An Coeur do la Vie, in which they will find several strands of interest woven together s the author's experiences in

Switzerland ; conversations in which many burning questions of religion and society are discussed; the love-story of a young couple divorced through mutual misunderstanding, and brought together again by the active benevolence of their best friend, Madame Pierre de Conlevain.

It does not seem quite plain whether M. Rena Bazin is the editor or the author of Memoires dune Vieille Mlle. One is inclined to believe that his little preface is more than a mystification; in any case, one knows that ib may very well be true, and that saoh people, the salt of France, exist in reality. The stories and sketches which make up the volume are singularly lifelike and touching. Like all M. Bazin's work, they leave a good moral taste behind them. Les Cloches is the first, and perhaps the most charming, of a collection of seven stories, delicately and poetically treated. "L'fltoile," the longest, is a tragio tale of a young opera- singer, hounded to death by private malice and revenge. The scene of all is in the South of France, on the borders of the Pyrenees, and each one, even the marvellous, has an accent of troth and reality. M. Charles Foley's new story of La Vendae, Jean des Brumes, is one of the best he has written of this kind. As to atmosphere and scenery, we have seldom met with anything better than the escape of the young Ohouan leader, guided softly by water, in mist and moonlight, through the labyrinth of shallow canals and streams, marshes and islands, of his ancestral country. The story has a heroine worthy of the name, is full of picturesque excitement, and ought to please readers of every age.

L 'Enfant auw Fourrures is a thrilling story for children of the adventures of a boy who was carried away by a she-bear into the mountains and fed in the place of her own lost cub. The illustrations are delightful, and all ends well, except for the faithful dog and the unlucky foster-mother.

Among literary trifles which have grace and charm may be mentioned M. Fernand Gregh's PrOlude Kerique, a fanciful little piece which was played last winter in Paris, and after- wards published in the Revue de Paris. Also Mimes et Ballets Grecs, oontaining a translation or adaptation from Theocritus by M. Christian Oherfils.