Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald, By Gerald Campbell. (Edward Arnold. 12s.
6d. net.)—It is a charming picture of the Fitzgerald family which these very intimate letters give WI. Whether it is altogether advisable to make so much fuss about the jealousy that Lady Edward excited, and the casual allusion of the aunt to the fact of Lord Edward coming drunk to her house, we doubt. Habits were different then, that is all. Lord Edward got drunk : and why attempt these elaborate explanations ? Loyalty to one's blood is understood ; and we all know that "Citizen Fitzgerald," as he called himself, was one of the best and truest gentlemen who ever lived, and the finest type of Irish gentleman,—warm- hearted, impulsive, generous, gentle, chivalrous, a very perfect knight indeed. The letters of his sisters are charming specimens of the tender, humorous, observant feminine mind, and portray for us once more the vivacious Fitzgerald of a hundred years ago. Mr. Gerald Campbell sketches the lives of hero and heroine in an easy conversational manner best suited to the editing of private letters. From this point of view the editor's work is all that it should be,—loyal, affectionate, and sympathetic. Lord Edward and his wife could have wished for no better biographer. The parentage of Lady Edward is discussed carefully, and we gather that the biographer is in favour of the Orleans parentage,—at least, we are led to infer that the weight of evidence is on that side. The portraits are charming and excellently reproduced. Lord Edward as a child is perhaps the best of all, though Hamilton's portrait of him as a young man, and that of Lady Edward as "Diana," are almost as attractive.
THE COURT OF THE FIB,ST NAPOLEON.
Previous page
