French and German
Les Idees Politiques de la France. By Albert Thibmpiet. (Stock. 15 fr.) Ames et Visages. du XXe. Siècle. By Andr6 ROILSSeallX. (Grasset. 15 fr.) Journal—Paris, Saint Petersbouit, 1877-1883. Edited by Felix de Vogile. (Grasset. 18 fr.) Hull Cent Ans de Revolution Francuis' e. By Henry de Jouvenol. (Hachette. 12 fr.) Tins is a mixed bag. M. Thibaudet has many of the best things. With French deftness and mental alacrity he traces the conflict in modern France between " liberalism and that traditionalism which is the hall-mark of classic Gallicism." This quality "se sent mieux qu'il ne se. definit." It provides a basis of moral force, powerful enough to persuade atheist fathers to send their children to confessional schools. All this—and the swing of the ,pendulum between the Taine- Bourget-Barre school and the idealogue critics—is admirably considered in M. Thibaudet's excellent little book.
M. Rousseaux is .hardly so happy. He spells a number of names eminent in the literature of contemporary France ; but he seems unable to call a goose by its own name : there is a kind of advertisement which damns and does not convince. And surely, " when one ceases to write like Paul Morand," one need not be " in danger of thinking like Baedeker " ?
The de Vogue Journal brings pleasant reminiscences of diplomatic eyries in the 'seventies and 'eighties when Berlin was in one of its cold, correct, and sad imperialist moods and when it was hard to get food in Albania. This book is as agreeable as that of M. de Jouvenel is witty. Perhaps more bright than serious the Huit Cent Ans de Revolution Francaise is a commendable short cut to revolution-lore, written by one who has read. his soul and 'realizes that often, as in the case of the French Revolution, kings kick their own thrones from under them by bringing revolution on their neighbours and destroying the man in the street's simple faith in monarchy.
In La Hongrie de Dentain, we have a new and modified presentation of the old Hungarian ease. There is a pleasant reference at the beginning of the book to Denmark's refusal of the Kiel Canal line and preference for a plebiscite. Late' comes plenty of useful information about Central European affairs and there is a useful map whose ethnographical features bear out the moderate territorial claims advanced by M. Dami. Two books deal with places rather than with people or politics. Herr Edschmid is on more familiar ground so far as most of us are concerned, when he writes about the Mediterranean, than he was in his South American book. Full well he knows his job. There before us is set South Germany with the orchards in blossom, baroc Melk and Vienna with flowering chestnuts. On by Tuscany and the Cyclades and the Hellenic Traveller country, this book about the 4. magic " of the Mediterranean takes us from Crete, which is compared somewhat unaccountably to England, to Syria where French methods are thrashed. Herr Edschmid is particularly relevant on Spain. He is a connoisseur who knows and appreciates the rare vintage. But to those who know this " Prunkstfick " between Mainz, Asehaffenburg, Wiirzburg and Speyer, his praise of that Jovely country will leave a particularly welcome taste at the end of a delightful, somewhat rambling book.
M. Arbos has written another excellent small book for the Collection Armand Colin. In it the Auvergne stands clear with its people, their land and their ways of life. This is the kind, of guide-book which we want to supplement our ONVII efforts too apt to be relegated to ecclesiological effluvia, high- ways, byways and hotel lists.
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