5 NOVEMBER 1910, Page 61

The French Revolution. By Thomas Carlyle. Illustrated by Edmund J.

Sullivan. 2 vols. (Chapman and Hall. 21s. net.)— There is no question that Mr. Sullivan possesses an imagination at once sombre, biting, and symbolic. The dance of death which is here presented to us is as horrible as it well could be. Death and the "Many-headed" are the chief actors in the tragedy, and opposed to them are Corruption and Folly. Towards the end Death reigns supreme enthroned upon the guillotine, with his attendant skeleton ape. Mr. Sullivan has not sought to catch the sound and fury of the prophetic Carlyle; he is more ironic, and cares not so much for great forces working in the background, but instead by means of symbolism and a biting pen shows us the horror of what actually took place.