Famous Women of the French Court. By Imbert de Saint-Amand.
Translated by Thomas Sergeant Parry. (Hutchinson and Co.)— Under the above title, M. Imbert de Saint-Amand has produced during the past few years, and is still, we believe, producing, a. whole series of popular volumes devoted to the Court history of Marie Antoinette, Josephine, and Marie Louise. M. de Saint- Amand's volumes are pleasant i eading enough, though they are only insufficient substitutes for the memoirs of Rtimusat, RtScamier, bre., from which they are mainly drawn. The chief fault is, that they are written in an over-optimistic spirit, and with an undue suppression of ugly facts. The Napoleon they describe is a very different being from the Napoleon of Taine or Talleyrand, but possibly not farther from the truth. In some points, too, as in the description of the famous interview with Lord Whitworth, the author is not up to date. The three volumes at present before us are entitled, " The Wife of the First Consul," "The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise," and " Marie-Louise and the Decadence of the Empire." We cannot say much for Mr. Parry's translation, which is often careless and slovenly. At p. 173 of the first-men- tioned volume, the First Consul is described as having a long and friendly talk with the First Consul ; and a few pages further on, we read : "A monk [sic] seemed greater to her than a Cromwell, or even than a Clesar."
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