28 DECEMBER 1901, Page 24

C LTRRENT LITERAT URE.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.

Life of Napoleon Buonaparte. By William Milligan Sloane, Ph.D. 4 vols. (Macmillan and Co. 63s. net.)—These very handsome volumes would be an ornament to any library. They are, we gather, an unaltered reprint from the first edition, and it is therefore needless to do more than call the attention of our readers to the fact that they have appeared ; we may, however, briefly repeat our opinion that Dr. Sloane's is a great work- He is not equally strong all round ; he is not at his best in describing battles, and some of his larger histarical judgments, as, for instance, his views of Napoleon's influence on the develop- ment of European politics, are open to question. But he has studied the literature of his subject with the greatest industry, and has investigated all sources of information, with the result that the reader sees before him a very carefully detailed picture of Revolutionary and Imperial France. The numerous illustra- tions, also, many of which have been specially executed for the work, must not be passed over without a reiteration of the praise which we gave on the former occasion. The portraits form by themselves a remarkable series, and these are supple- mented by reproductions of a number of genre pictures of all kinds, including pretty well all the famous Napoleon pictures. Altogether this is a work which does great credit to the enter- prise of the publishers, as well as to the industry and genius of the author.