Shorter Notices
In Search of Two Characters : Some Intimate Aspects of
Napoleon and His Son. By Dormer Creston. (Macmillan. 18s.) Miss CRESTON has put together from well-known sources the well- known characteristics of Napoleon Bonaparte as a private man. War, government and politics, which were nine-tenths of Napoleon's life, are left out of the picture. The result is a description mainly in adjectives of a man who expressed himself in nouns and verbs. This continual dodging of everything universal or adamantine or mag- nificent in Napoleon's career is extremely tiresome, and the more so because Miss Creston's style is too luscious, and her translations Of Napoleon's talk into English have a " ho, prithee " effect which is most disconcerting.
The story of the Duke of Reichstadt is more within Miss Creston's range, though even here too much attention is given to the stage scenery. In fact, the general impression left by the book is rather like that of the late Sir Beerbohm Tree's productions of Shakespeare.
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