BOOKS.

SOME MODERN FRENCH BOOKS. [COMMUNICATED.]

HISTORY and literature combine to make M. FredBric Masson's book, L'AcadOmie Prancaise, 1629-1793 (011endorff

7fr. 50c.), one of the most important lately published in France. M. Masson does not carry on his account of the Academy beyond the Revolution, when Lanjuinais condemned it as "un etablissement dangereux dans un gouvernement libre," and talked of "les profonds desseins de cet orgueilleux despote," its founder, Richelieu. But he tells in detail, with many interesting illustrations, the story of its origins, its foundation and early regulations ; the elections, receptions, and literary work, notably the great Dictionary; the relations of the Academy with Royalty, with the Church, with the provinces, where it possessed various offshoots; the more remarkable among its members, from Conrart to Condorcet and Malesherbes. In short, this distinguished Academician describes very fully the nature and achievement of the " high court of letters " which made the French language and litera- ture what they have been for the last three hundred years.

In Le Marquis Rene de Girardin (Perrin, Mr. 50c.) M. Andre Martin-Decaen gives an interesting account of the latest friend and protector of Rousseau. To the hospitality which fed and sheltered the philosopher during the last six weeks of his unhappy life, M. de Girardin owes a certain fame not personally undeserved ; for he was one of the really original characters of his class and time. His enthusiasm for gardening made Ermenonville a paradise, and Rousseau's tomb there was a place of pilgrimage till after Thermidor, when, greatly to M. de Girardin's distress, his bones were removed to the Pantheon. M. Martin-Decaen has done full justice to an attractive subject.

The careful historical monographs of the Comte de Pimodan are already known to my readers. His recent book, Lea Fianfailles de Madame Royale (Plon-Nourrit, Mr.), throws new light on the youthful days of a princess who was morally, if not actually, one of the sad victims of the Revolution. M. de Pimodan has had access to the Austrian Imperial archives, where he has studied the police copies of many private letters written by Madame Royale to her uncle, Louis XVILL, her aunts and cousins, especially the Duc d'Angouleme. These letters show plainly the difficult position in which the princess found herself as a refugee at the Court of Vienna, where there was at first an idea of marrying her to the Archduke Charles. Also, by explaining the depression and the disappointments she endured, the book goes to dis- credit those rumours which represent Louis XVI.'s daughter as dying in a German hiding-place, and being impersonated by the woman who gained so little liking or sympathy as Duchesse d'Angouleme.

The war in Tripoli last year has scarcely had a more spirited chronicler than M. Georges Remond, who went out as corre- spondent of L'Illustration, and published his letters under the title of Aux Camps Turco-Arabes : Notes de Route et de Guerre en Tripolitaine et en Cyrendique. (Hachette, 15fr.) It is a handsome volume, well printed, and full of excellent photographs of the country and the people. M. Rernond's point of view is that of the Turks and the Arabs, of whom he had every reason, apparently, to speak with favour. He expresses a high opinion of the Turkish soldier. When the troops were leaving Tripoli for Constantinople to take part in the greater struggle now near its end, he wrote, "Si je devais juger de tons les Tures par ceux aux cotes desquels j'ai vecu en Tripolitaine, je ne douterais pas de l'issue de la nouvelle guerre." The conditional mood may save M. Remond's fame as a prophet.

When Louis XIV. looked down upon Alsace from the Vosges he cried, " Quel beau jardin !" and this name, Le Beau Jardin, is given by M. Paul Acker to the charming and touching book in which he attempts to describe every aspect of his beloved province (Plon-Nourrit, Mr. 50c.). One of his chapters deals with the patriotic writers, Erckmann-Chatrian, and their extraordinary knowledge of Alsace and Lorraine. He claims for them a share, with George Sand, of the honour due to pioneers in the field of

provincial and popular literature. With M. Maurice Barres, lie places them beside Mistral as " ma.inteneurs de la nationalite franeaise." Travelling southwards, we can find no pleasanter companion than M. Andre Maurel in his Paysages d'Italie (Hachette, 3fr. 50c.). His Petites Riles d'Italie and other Italian sketches are probably familiar to my readers. This new volume, "De Florence 5. Naples," includes names so suggestive as Volterra, Siena, Chiusi, Subiaco, and many more, and is to be followed shortly by another in the same series, "De Milan 5. Rome." Another delightful book, dealing partly with mediaeval Italy, partly with the East, consists of studies chosen among the papers of the late Academician, Emile Gebhart, and published under the title of Les Siecles de Bronze (Blond et Cie., 3fr. 50c.). This charming writer adorned every subject he touched, and his admirers will find the latest little volume equal to any of his works in depth of knowledge and grace of treatment.

The best modern French thought and criticism, touching literature on many sides, with an occasional excursion into politics, is to be found in the two new volumes lately published by M. Paul Bourget, Pages de Critique et de Doctrine (Plon-Nourrit, 7fr.). Not the least interesting chapter is the author's dedicatory letter to M. Jules Lemaitre describing the " curve of thought " which each has followed since the early days when both found their highest ideals in the spirit of the Revolution. This letter forms a valuable introduction to volumes which in their variety of range and of pleasant reading are equal to anything of the kind that M. Bourget has given us. And the next book on my list is not out of tune with them. Readers of Mme. Goyau's former books will hardly need more than a word of recommendation of L'Anie des Enfants, des Pays et des Saints (Perrin, 3fr. 50c.). This collection of delicate and poetic essays includes such subjects as "L'Enfance de Pascal," " Fromentin," " Ombres et Paysages de Touraine," and others which illustrate the author's theories as to the relations of art and life, of the spirit of man and its outward expression. Nor need I say much of the recent addition to the series of " Les Grands Ecrivains Strangers," several of which have been formerly mentioned to my readers. Their interestand value lie in the fresh points of view suggested by foreign criticism of our own and other literature. This book on Robert Browning, by Dr. Pierre Berger (Bloud, 2fr. 50c.), is one of the best of the series : a remarkable study by a sincere admirer of a poet who has remained till now, owing to supposed difficulty and obscurity, rather outside French appreciation.

The fine romance, La Colline Inspiree 3fr. 50c.), which M. Maurice Barres has lately given to the world, is a true story with a real background. The latter is the famous hill of Sion-Vaudemont, in Lorraine, in past ages a centre of religion and of history : the former is the life of three brothers, priests, of whom the last and greatest, Leopold Baillard, died so lately as 1883. Their work as reformers in the religious revival of their province fell to pieces owing to a wave of unreal mysticism and the influence of a false prophet; but this failure did not deepen the tragic significance of Leopold's life and fate, described here by a great writer in his own faultless style. Fiction of a mystical turn is evidently rather fashionable in France at present. Le Nouvel Homme, by Michel Epuy (Lausanne, Payot ; Paris, Fontemoing, 3fr. 50e.), is an interesting study of a pastor's son in the Cevennes who tries to found what the author, in his introduction, declares necessary—a new religion. The preaching, the disciples, the enthusiasm, the final martyrdom, all is vividly told. One may briefly say that the new teaching owes all its merits to Christianity and fails signally where it diverges from the old path. The mysterious background of rock and desert mountain adds much to the impressiveness of this curious book. And those who are familiar with the inner developments of French life will be the last to say that there is much exaggeration in the striking picture of Marie-Juliette and her mother drawn by Blanche de Riviere in Le Roman d'une Mystique (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.). The saintly Mine. Desgranges and her ungracious daughter are, each in her own way, the product of circum- stances. Given an entirely religious woman married to an

entirely worldly man, and you have the result—Marie-Juliette —in whom the struggle is fought out to its rather tragic close.

M. Paul Margueritte excels in studying that cult of the family which is nowhere stronger than in France. Obedience to parents and self-sacrifice for family interests are there still, as they have always been, motives whose power is comparatively slight in England. Les Fabreee (Plon-Nourrit, 3fr. 50c.) is a clever and readable novel of this kind, in which the fortunes of a whole band of brothers and sisters are followed out in their variety, each life influenced for good or ill by the unwritten law acknowledged by all. The colonial army of France has its own traditions and sentiments; and the best side of these is put forward by one of its own " authorised" writers, Lieutenant Jean Renaud, in his spirited novel, Les Et-rants (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.). The first part of the story takes place in Martinique; later scenes have an African setting. The heroes are young artillery officers and the gallant com- mander of a wrecked submarine. The atmosphere of the book is one of actual life and knowledge. Docteur Germaine (Perrin, 3fr. 50c.) is the pathetic story of a woman who devotes her life to the service of humanity, and marries without realizing that such a whole-hearted service is incompatible with the claims of husband and child. The history of her heart-breaking experience is told by Mme. Noelle Roger with feeling and charm. Such child-portraits as that of Willy are rare in modern literature. Feuilles Mortes, by Mme. Jacques Morel (Hachette, 3fr. 50c.), is a recent addition to the publishers' pretty illustrated series of novels, " Petite Bibliotheque de la Famille." The heroine of the story makes her good husband very unhappy, and our sympathy is with him. At the end, she burns the manuscript to which she has confided her troubles. But as, in spite of her, these con- fidences have reached the public, one can only suppose that like other repentant authors she snatched them from the flames.

It is surprising to see M. Funck-Brentano's name on the title-page of a novel. But Rosette : au l' Amoureuse Canspira- Han (Pion-Nonrrit, 3fr. 50c.), written by him in collaboration with M. de Lorae, is really a kind of offshoot of his deep historical studies, and a most readable and entertaining one. Probably the authors have taken a liberty with the facts of their heroine's life in representing her as the sole inventor and betrayer, for her own romantic ends, of the Cellamare con- spiracy against the Regent Orleans. The real Mlle. de Lannay, Bayonne de Steal, was hardly so clever, so fascinat- ing, or so daring as "Rosette." But her adventures make a spirited tale, and the picture of her times is, of course, excellent. Another attractive piece of fiction that touches history is Le Livre de Raison d'Elisabeth, Renault, by G. Rocourt (011endorff, 3fr. 50c.). This is the diary of a young girl living with her parents at St. Germain-en-Laye from 1789 to 1795, therefore a near witness of the heights and depths of the Revolution. It is probably true of the times and of French bourgeoise nature that an amiable girl such as Elisabeth, while rising joyfully to the heights, should show herself very little impressed by the depths, taking the Terror quite en philosophe as long as it did not lay its red band on her own home circle.

La Plus Humble Vie, by Charles de Borden (Fasquelle, 3fr. 50c.), is hardly to be described as a novel. It is rather a realistic study of the life and death of a peasant of Beam, extending through the greater part of the nineteenth century, from his early years as a boy on a farm to his courtship and happy marriage; then to the departure of his sons for the war of 1870, their return, his old age and last days. Shrewd wisdom and simple faith, ignorance and impatience of politics, love of natural things, a pairie bounded for him by his native hills, all go to form the character of honest Jacques Cadet.

The Prix Goncourt has been gained by M. Andre Savignon's book, Pities de la Pluie (Grasset, 3fr. 50c.), a series of vivid sketches of life in the storm-swept island of Onessant. The general impression is terribly painful, deepened by repulsive Zolaesque details of horror and tragedy. It appears that the ancient simplicity of a fine race has been ruined, as with other primitive peoples, by modern civilization in its most evil and brutal forms. All M. Savignon's stories, with their wild back- ground of mist and rocks and sea, go to prove the sad truth

of his concluding words, " C'eat une ile perdue." E.