6 MARCH 1982, page 25

Pan-germanism

A. L. Rowse Evangelist of Race: The Germanic vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain G. G. Field (Columbia University Press £14.50) I have always wanted to know about Houston......

Regency

David Williams oing through the index of this intermittently delightful book is like going through the index to Debrett or the Almanach de Gotha. (I am not a deep stu- dent of......

Frailty

Kathy O'Shaughnessy Novels teach the youthful mind 1 NI to sigh after happiness that never ex- isted° wrote Oliver Goldsmith reprovingly. In the late 18th-century bored young......