Signor Dartiele Vare was Italian Minister to reking, in the
days when the Chinese Empire had just fallen, and the political sky was alight with the afterglow. The. Empress yphonala's personality still lingered in the Forbidden City ; and Signor: Vare, who lived under its spell for 20 years, now sets out to capture " some of the glamour that was Peking " before the tradition fades. He succeeds remarkably. There have been: Several lives of the ill-fated Empress, but none more direct, attractive, and magnetic than this (Murray, 15s.). This is • biography in the modern vein; but untainted by modern vulgarity and licence. The artist respects his subject and his art. The story of the " little girl with almond-shaped eyes, and her hair in two plaits down her back," who won her way from Pewter Street in the Tartar City to the flowery splendours of the Summer Palace, is told with gusto, but also with commendable freedom from false heroics. From childhood she was quick-witted and quick-tempered ; observing every- thing, she kept her own counsel. There was an old prophecy that a warrior-woman should rule over the Manchus, and bring them to their doom. Perhaps she was conscious of her destiny : Most certainly she fulfilled it. " She stood for the old philoophy, the old aloofness, the old disdain. When she died, the old China went up in flames, like a Valhalla." The unbroken continuity with the past was ended, and on her death-bed she knew it. ," Never again allow a woman to hold the supreme power in the State," she said. "It is against the house-law of our dynasty, and should be forbidden."
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