CORRESPONDENCE.

SOME MODERN FRENCH BOOKS.

[To THE EDITOR of TOR " SPECTATOP41 Srn,—I begin my occasional letter, as usual, with a selection of the best memoirs and historical works of the most general interest, recently published in Paris, and among these, with regard to its date, the book lately edited by M. Jean Lemoine, Lettres sur la Cour de Louis XIV, by the Marquis de Saint- Maurice (Calmann-Levy, 7fr. 50c.), stands naturally first. M. de Saint-Maurice was for some years the Ambassador of Charles Emmanuel II., Duke of Savoy, at the French Court. He was a personage of great distinction of birth and character, a courtier and a patriot. His letters to the Duke give a tell- ing picture of Louis XIV., his family and surroundings. Among the events of which he writes one of the most tragic is the death of Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, and one of the most amusing the mariage manqué of the Grande Mademoiselle and M. de Lauzun. M. Lemoine's introduction is full of interesting details regarding Savoy and the family history of

M. de Saint-Maurice.

Next should be mentioned an attractive and sympathetic book on Marie Antoinette, which deals especially with the

friendships that counted for so much in her life. Amities de .Reine (Emile Paul, 5fr.) is written by M. Jacques de la Faye, and has a preface by M. de Segur, of the Academy. Among other matters of interest it contains three or four unpublished letters from Louis XVI. to Madame de Polignao, and it dwells especially on those early Revolution days to which recently described psychic experiences may have given, for some of us, a new fascination.

The popularity of Napoleonic literature shows no sign of

lessening in France, and a book to be specially noticed is M. Gilbert Stenger's Le Retour de l'Empereur (Plon-Nourrit, 7fr. 50c.). In hie brilliant pages one need hardly say that Napoleon, " rimmortel vaincu," is exalted to the highest point as a man, a ruler, a soldier. The blindness of France, the perfidy of England, the heroic spirit of patriotic unselfish- ness shown by the Emperor throughout those eighteen months which began with his first abdication and ended in St. Helena —these, with all their developments, are M. Stenger's inspira- tion. The extraordinary story of the Hundred Days has never been told with more freshness and spirit. One may have little sympathy with M. Stenger's hero-worship, and may utterly disagree with hie political views, but the en- trancing interest of his book is undeniable. A fairer, if less enthusiastic, view of Napoleon is taken by Madame de Tschudi in her new volume on Madame Letizia, La .11fere de Napoleon (Fontemoing, 3fr. 50c.). This epitome of the First Empire story, with its central figure of a woman whose main charac- teristics were so much nobler than those of the majority of her children, reads even more like a mock-heroic play than most of the Napoleonic chronicles. With all Madame's devotion to her marvellous son, she was able keenly to criticize the rest of her family of glorified parvenue, and kept to the last, in blind and lonely old age, much of her insular pride and stern simplicity. The book contains one or two curious assertions; for instance, that a principal reason for the opposition of Napoleon's mother to his first marriage was Josephine's advanced age, which allowed no hope of grandchildren : Josephine was thirty-three. But it is well worth reading.

Among literary biographies, M. Masson-Forestier's very

curious and amusing book, Autour d'un Racine Ignore (Mer- cure de France, 7fr. 50c.), stands quite out of the usual crowd. The author is a descendant of Racine's family, and his object in this entertaining study is to deprive Port Royal of its long- admitted claim to be the nursery of Racine's genius. Race and birthplace, the acknowledged facts of the poet's life, and the evidence in the plays of what his mind really was—that of a tiger rather than of a saint—are all made to bear witness to theories which may well startle old " Raciniens." The wonder- ful portrait at Langres certainly strengthens M. Masson- Forestier's case. In a new and promising series, Les Femmes Illustres, which is to deal with famous women of all nations, M. Emile Faguet has brought out a charming little book on Madame de Sevigne (Librairie Nilsson, 2fr. 50c.). The " dear creature " has never been more justly appreciated ; and one might go far without finding a fairer or more entertaining picture of the society that knew and loved her. We have also to thank M. Faguet for a thoughtful and enlightening commentary on that curious classic attributed without certainty to Pascal, Discours cur les Passions de r Amour (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.). It is evident that M. Faguet is strongly inclined to believe in Pascal's authorship, finding, as he does, the most striking family likeness in style and in mode of thought between the Discaurs and the Pensdes. Critics differ; but if M. Faguet is right, the Discours only adds an additional leaf to Pascal's crown.

It was a happy thought that moved the friends of the late Academician, Emile Gebhardt, to collect a number of his papers and articles, with a series of letters written to his family when a young man, under the title of Souvenirs d'un Vieil Athenien (Blond, 3fr. 50c.). Most of them are the result of M. Gebhardt's classical studies, from the amateur standpoint of a modern traveller in Greece, Italy, and the East. He was not an archaeologist, but rather a literary artist a la manii-re de Chateau briand—wbose much-abused memory he did something to defend—with a keen eye for the picturesque and romantic side of things and a charming gift of description. While dealing, as here, with more literary subjects, I must not omit to mention a new and excellently written series of " Grands Ecrivains Etrangers " (2fr. 50c. each) now being brought out by Messrs. Blond et Cie. Two early volumes of this series are Chaucer, by M. Legouis, the well-known professor at the Sorbonne, and Les Sceurs BrontO, by the Abbe Dimnet, familiar to us through his clever articles in English reviews. The French, of course, excel in studies such as these. Their industry and keenness in collecting facts are only equalled by the lively grace of their writing, and the point from which they view our literature cannot fail to be novel and amusing. We are assured that M. Legouis' Chaucer is the first book on the subject ever published in France ; the first complete in itself, that is, apart from the great literary histories. And it is a very finished study, which will repay careful reading ; for it deals, not only with the life and times of Chaucer, but with his making as a poet, influenced by Italy and the Troubadours, and gives a careful critical analysis, not only of the "Canterbury Tales," but of the more difficult allegorical poems. One must add a word of admiration of the translations into French with which M. Legouis has indulged his countrymen. Le Sceurs Bronte is a book, perhaps, more generally readable; a delightfully written study of Charlotte and her sisters, quite as likely to interest English readers as the French to whom, in M. Dimnet's opinion, they need this kind of introduction. As to that, my own experience has been that Jane Eyre is the one English novel French people are certain to know. Another English writer who has been studied in great detail is Shelley. M. Koszul's recent book, La Jeunesse de Shelley (Blond, 4fr.), has for its object a clear understanding of the poet's early development, and of how the lingering influence of the 18th century united with the new romantic movement in the making of " le plus poets des poetes anglais." Lastly, among books of this kind, we have the very interesting volume on George Meredith by M. Constantin Photiades (Armand Colin, 3fr. 50c.), sure to be popular both in England and France from the charm of the style in which, aided by the great writer's own work, but with marked originality of treatment, this critic sets forth his devoutly admired subject.

Even more melancholy and pessimistic than the late Edouard Rod's work in general is his posthumous novel, Le Pasteur Pauvre (Perrin, 3fr. 50c.). At the same time, its clear simplicity and distinction of thought set it at once on a higher level than most modern fiction. The characters are alive. The pathetic, if irritating, figure of Pasteur Cauche, as he gropes his way, heroic, with limited vision, through the windings of this incomprehensible world, is not one to be quickly forgotten. La Robe de Laine (Plon-Nourrit, 3fr. 50c.), if not one of the strongest, is one of the most pleasing novels that M. Bordeaux has written. The tender refinement, which is a characteristic of his talent, has its full scope in this story

based, though with wide divergence, on that of the Lord of

Burleigh—in which he gives the tragic romance of the life and death of a famous aviator, set against the background of a lonely old chateau among forests and valleys of remote pro- vincial France. M. Guy Chanteplenre tells in Malencontre (Calmann-Levy, 3fr. 50c.) the quite Radcliffian tale of a munch more tremendous chateau, a gloomy feudal stronghold among the mountains of Auvergne. He makes it the scene of a tragedy and an idyll, with something of old legends and fairy. tales worked into both. The Parisian fairy who gives back life and happiness to the master of Malencontre might have borrowed her beneficent charms from the famous Melusine herself, but her story has a happier ending.

Readers of the Revue des Deux Mondes hardly need to be reminded of M. Paul Renaudin's striking novel, C e qui Dem cure (Plon-Nourrit, 3fr. 50c.), which appeared there some months ago. The motive is simple and strong ; the age-long fight between love and duty ; and there are only three characters of importance—the sailor hero and the two women whose lives are in different ways bound up with his, and each of whom, in the end, sacrifices all for his sake. Something of the same spirit of loyal self-forgetfulness shines through Les Demoiselles de Saint-Andre, lately published by the popular novelist, M. Champol (Pion-Nourrit, 3fr. 50c.). It is a vivid, adventurous, and touching story of the Revolution. A pro- minent figure in its pages is the mysterious Royalist leader, the Baron de Batz, whom M. Lenotre has lately made the subject of one of his valuable studies of that time.

Among the younger French novelists few are more agreeably readable than M. Leon Lafage. His new book, Par Aventure (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.), is of much greater importance than the pretty volume of short stories, La Chevre de Pescadoire, which I noticed some months ago, and quite as characteristic of his attractive talent and of his favourite Provence. The hero is a Provencal fruit and flower farmer, the heroine a Parisian actress of singular charm. A very striking figure is the un- lucky shepherd, Jeantet, who loses his wits and his life for love of the heartless daughter of his father's enemy. A picture of the life of the people in mean streets of Paris is rather effectively drawn in Chez Eux, by Marianne Damad (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.). A young widow belonging to the middle classes, left without friends, though not quite without means, finds a corner for herself in a house in a poor neighbourhood let out in cheap fiats. Her uncongenial neighbours are won by Mme. Fabian's real goodness and refinement ; and though evil tongues succeed in spoiling her peace, she has ne reason in the end to regret her strange choice of a dwell- ing. It is a good story, full of human feeling. Catherine Haulier, by Leon Allard (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.), has both charm and pathos. A young girl, leaving the Paris convent where she was educated, comes home to live with her married sister, to whom she is devoted. That love leads her into unfamiliar worlds of sorrow and evil, and life becomes for her a martyrdom that only deepens with years. The cha- racters of both sisters are well and delicately drawn. Leur Royanme (Plon-Nourrit, 3fr. 50c.) is a pretty and graceful love-story, by M. Robert Yallery-Radot, in which, as it some. times happens—generally, one fancies, against the author's intention, but here one is not sure—the figures on the second plane are more interesting, more natural, and more satis- factory than the hero and heroine en litre. Anyhow, the romantic Fabienne was more likely to find happiness with the manly and excellent Nanchevres than with Jacques Sibreuse, her high-flown and poetical ideal, who was captured by her young and lovely sister. A volume of more or less attractive stories by Jean de Bourgogne takes its title from the first, L'Amoureuz de Tante Annette (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.). All or most of the stories have a mixture of quaintness and pathos which makes them very readable, though some, such as " Chimere " and "La Faute de Petite Rose," are pure tragedy, and others, such as " Sur l'Imperiale," merely light and amusing.

A French book on Australia is something of a rarity, and English readers will probably enjoy M. Paul Wenz's volume of slight and clever sketches, Sous la Croix du Sud (Plon- Nourrit, 3fr. 50c.), which describes, with a few vivid strokes, various aspects of life in New South Wales and the islands of the Pacific. Messrs. Hachette et Cie have lately added L'Emouchet, by Norbert Sevestre (3fr. 50c.), three stories of Norman peasant life, clever if rather gruesome, to their illus- trated "Petite Bibliotheque de la Famille."—I am, Sir, &c., E.