MIRRORS TO FRANCE
Romantic France : The Enchanted Land of Provence. By Eleanor Elsner: (Jenkins. 1(s. 6d.)
Ms. Farm MADOX FORD thinks that the best way of paying tribute to what one loves is to hold up a mirror to it ; and, in this sense, all three books on this list are mirrors held up in homage ; for all three writers are in love with France. And though Mr. Ford does not limit his subject like the others, he, like them, makes it plain that what charms him most in France is the South—the Mediterranean country, not the Atlantic country, which also is France.
Mr. Robson and Miss Elsner praise Provence with knowledge derived from much study, and Miss Elsner, has in some degree the gift of evocation ; she makes one see that corner of France which lies where the Mediterranean laps against the Pyrenees.. Both are good guides to the literature and history and antiquities of the region. Mr. Ford, on the other hand, is that rare thing, an Englishman who really knows both England and France ; also, he is at moments a writer. But as a general rule he thinks that to sit down and let your pen run is writing. France should have taught him better, for he holds with Flaubert, and presumably with Maupassant, and should like the sharp clean stroke and the line which is never lost. Besides, why does he so absurdly overcharge his statements ? If it is true that every Frenchman from the Cevennes to Mar- seilles, on learning Mr. Ford's nationality, says " Ah, e est uous qui avez sauvi is France," there must be something specially imposing in Mr. Ford's presence ; the ordinary Britisher is not so saluted. Nor, again, does the ordinary Britisher experience any special incivility in Montparnasse, whatever Mr. Ford may say.
However, there is much instructive contrasting of English and French ways in this book and it is well worth reading, yen if it annoys by the sense that it could have easily been so much better.
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