READING IN THE BLACK-OUT
Sm,—" Janus" suggests that reading for black-out evenings might be thought out. There is one series which I found of great interest. While reading Carlyle's French Revolution I noticed how often the author referred to Young's Travels in France and Italy when speaking of social conditions in France immediately before the revo- lution. I read that Locknart's Life of Napoleon dealt with the dominating figure who emerged from the turmoil and Tolstoi's War and Peace embodied the novelist's ideas on the impact of Napoleon's Russian campaign on a band of Russian people. Finally the Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne give a faithful and interesting account of the experiences of a French soldier on the retreat from Moscow. This series of books leaves one with a very definite picture of the troublous years 1785-1815. All can be obtained in cheap editions: the first four in Everyman and the last in the Travellers'
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