8 NOVEMBER 1913, Page 28

Memories and Adventures.

By Louise H6ritte-Viardot.

Translated from the German manuscript and arranged by E. S. Buchheim. (Mills and Boon. 10s. 6d. net.)—The author of these reminiscences is the daughter of Pauline Viardot and the niece of Malibran and of Manuel Garcia. From its very beginning, therefore, her life was spent among musicians, and it is perhaps chiefly on account of the many stories of musicians which this volume contains that it will find its most eager readers. Madame Heritte-Viardot's experiences, however, have been more varied than those of most singers ; she tells of a long stay in South Africa, of another in Russia, and gives accounts of a police raid, of a shipwreck, and of a railway accident. Her pages are filled with the names not only of famous musicians, such as Berlioz, Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Rubinstein, but of other celebrities, like George Sand, Dickens, and Turgenieff. Among the most entertaining chapters is one describing an operatic tour through England and Ireland in 1858, with Viardot, Grisi, and Mario as the chief members of the company.