CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Life of Madame de Rochefoucauld, Duchess., de Doudeaurille, Foundress of the Society of Nazareth. Translated from the French by Mrs. Cashel Hoey. (Burns and Oates.)—We reviewed the original of this interesting book at some length about ten months ago.* Mrs. Cashel Hoey has given us here a translation of it, into perfectly pure and vigorous English, which it is a pleasure to read. The historian and the politician will, of course, differ very widely from some of the assumptions of this book as to the character of the revolutionary period; but no one who reads it with a fair mind will fail to be fascinated by the beauty of the character which is depicted in it, nor indeed to see in the exquisite loveliness of the portrait which is prefixed, the expression of a mind which may fairly be called saintly. There is also not a little of characteristic incident in the life. The picture of Napoleon halting at Montmirail, in one of his campaigns, and wanting to break down what he called the "par- tition " between two of the rooms,—really a wall three feet thick,— in order to spread out his maps more conveniently, and of the sturdy housekeeper's successful opposition to the proposal, will illustrate what we mean when we say that memoirs of this kind often let in more graphic gleams of light on general history, than you can get from the formal description of campaigns.
Previous page
