LOUIS THE FIFTEENTH AND HIS TIMES
. By Pierre Gaxotte
The sinners of the nineteenth century-are rapidly becoming the saints of the twentieth. In England, it is true, we are more used to the contrary process, but this is perhaps owing to our excessive supply of national saints. The French, however, have always been franker as to the private lives of their public characters, and in France there is still a demand for whitewash. In his introduction to this book (Cape, 12s. 6d.) M. Gaxotte has, it is true, set himself a task at once easier and more important than the mere vindication of the personal character of Louis XV. More than 70 years separate the death of Louis XIV from the outbreak of the Revolution, and these years are too often regarded merely as the descent towards inevitable chaos. But in fact the period was one in which the old regime made repeated attempts at reform. Once, in 1789, it even succeeded in balancing the budget. The portion of the book that deals with these attempts at reform, and Particularly those made by Cardinal
Fleury, is excellent. But M. Gaxotte is apparently a Catholic Royalist and as such is interested to examine rather the King's person than the King's system. In doing so he has written an account that is both entertaining and moderate of the court and palace intrigue of the period. Louis emerges as a well-meaning man at the mercy of a system. Such quotations from sources as " Every day the King grows prettier . . . the King has a slight stomach-ache" are perhaps of interest only to a Royalist.
Previous page
