The Romance of Prince Eugene. By Albert Pulitzer. Trans- lated
from the French by Mrs. B. M. Sherman. (Edward Arnold.) —This work is described by its author as an idyll of the time of Napoleon I. It is the story, more particularly, of the married life of Eugene de Beauharnais, the son of the Empress Josephine, and the step-son of Napoleon. The marriage, which turned out so happily, was arranged in most autocratic manner by Napoleon. The young couple had never seen each other and were not consulted. Eugene was in Spain ; the Princess Augusta of Bavaria was engaged to her cousin Prince Charles of Baden; yet the marriage took place eleven days after Napoleon announced his wishes. The book is neither a serious work of history nor a historical novel, but some- thing between the two, without the merits of either. The style is gushing and trivial, full of exclamations and interrogations. The translation is crude, unpolished, and unpleasant to read. Almost every sentence bears the mark of the original language, and Gallicisms of various kinds abound. The " Napoleonic epopee " may be quoted as a specimen.
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