THE STORY OF MY LIFE
By Marie, Queen of Roumania The third volume (Cassell, 18s.) of Queen Marie of Rou- mania's autobiography stands in some contrast to the two earlier volumes. As it deals almost entirely with the period of the Great War, the note of humour and exuberance which made the earlier volumes so attractive is absent., Instead there is a tenseness and a profound sadness, causedt:Only by
the War, of whose effects the Queen, who saw -I:tohbiroes of war, was well aware, but also by the death of Prince Allreea, her youngest son. The Queen herself emerges as a remarkably courageous and energetic personality, although she semis hardly aware how utterly Unconstitutional her ineursionsintoliolities must have been. There is, however, a certain monotony in the constant references to hospital-visits and to ,the distribu- tion of cigarettes to soldiers, although it was a magnificent feat to calm a growling mob of Bolshey& soldiers by,. this method. The reader may regret that the old Queen, Carmen Sylva, whose amiable eccentricities are so OM-singly ktuff,3tet so kindly described hy Queen Marie, died so early -in this volume. It is dramatically fitting that the book should end with the victory of Rounutnia and her allies and with the triumphal march of the Queen through the streets of the reconjuered capital
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