SOME MODERN FRENCH BOOKS.

A stonx striking and affecting book than Prisonnier de Guerre, by Andre Warnod (Fasquello, 3 fr. 50 c.), would be hard to find among the war literature of France. The writer tells of his own experiences, from the

field of battle near Nancy to the German camp at Mersebnrg, and then the journey back nine months later through Switzerland to Paris. He gives every detail of life at tho camp, of a monotonous misery varied now and then by some especially cruel tyranny, but endured on the whole by himself and his fellow-prisoners, mostly French and Russians, with an heroic and pathetic cheerfulness. It is the book of a true man and a gallant soldier. The pen-and-ink sketches with which it is illustrated are exceedingly clover and enlightening.

The late M. Francis Charmes, of the Academy, editor of the Revue des

Deur Monde., republished a few months ago his fortnightly chronicle of public events from August, 1914, to May, 1915: L'Allemagne contra r Europe : La Guerre : 1914-1915 (Perrin, 3 fr. 50 a.). The book is a mine of historical fact and of political wisdom, and will be found in- tensely interesting by readers who wish to refresh their memory as to events and crises in a time so near yet already seeming so far away. It will also be a valuable help to future historians of the war. M. Charmes is a great loss to France and England : he was a clear thinker and a loyal ally. Another collection of war articles equally informing, and more inspiring by beauty of language and poetry of thought, is L'Ame Francaise et in Guerre : r Union Sacree, by Maurice Barr& (Emile- Paul Freres, 3 fr. 50 c.). The writings of this famous Academician, the President of the " Ligue des Patriotes " in succession to Paul Deroulede, are familiar to all lovers of fine literature. These articles, which appeared in the Echo de Paris, cover only the earlier months of the war ; wo may therefore hope for more volumes of the same kind. Here, beginning with the events that followed the death of Derouiede, AL Barre goes on to the death of Jaures ; then the fighting in his beloved Alsace and Lorraine, then the Great Retreat, then the victory of the Marne, then the " siege war," down to the end of October, 1914.

M. Banks in several pages of his book pays high tribute to that whole- hearted patriot, Paul Deroulede, whose enthusiasm for his country and for the recovery of her lost provinces sometimes led him into violence of thought and imprudence of action, but whose spirit and doctrine triumphed at the beginning of this war, when France acted on the first principle of his " Ligue des Patriotes " : " Republicains, Bonapartistes, Legitimistes, Orleanistes, ce ne sont LS, chez nous, quo des prenoms C'est Patriots) le nom de famillo." Six months before the war, Deroulede died ; and we may now turn with deep interest to the book by Jerome and Jean Tharaud, themselves soldiers of France—La Vie et in Mort de Deroulade (Emile-Paul Freres, 3 fr. 50 c.)—which tells the story of a man who was at once poet and prophet, discredited in other days but rightly appreciated now. It may be added, for readers who will be roused to a fresh interest in Deroulede by this fine book, that his famous and popular Chants du Solclat, as well as his other volumes of fighting verse, are published at 1 franc by Messrs. Calmann-Levy. I have not space to do more than allude to these splendid little books, relics of a former war.

M. Arthur Chuquet's book, Dumouriez, in the valuable series " Figures du Passe " (Hachette, 7 fr. 50 ie.), appeared at the beginning of the war. Interesting at any time, as an excellent biography of a brilliant soldier whom his own generation treated with some injustice, the book has a fascination of its own for the present day, while the battles of Dumouriez and the French Army of 1792 are fought over again on the same ground. The great mistake of Dumouriez—in essence a noble and patriotic mistake, for which he paid dearly, for it ended his career—was his plan to use the Army of the Revolution to check the Revolution's excesses and to give France a Constitutional Government in place of the Terror. Among his political reflections in later life on the force of public opinion and the growing power of democracy, one at least was born of bitter experience- " Anatheme sur quiconque tourne sea armes contra ses concitoyens."

A more recent book by M. Arthur Chuquet, De Valmy el in Marna (Fontemoing, 3 fr. 50 c.), is a series of short studies of Prussian thought and method from 1792 to the present day. Some of these are characteristic sketches of the manners and customs of officers, others are memories of the war of 1870, others are concerned with various military adventures of the last two years, but all are readable and full of curious information. The El istoire Illustrie de in Guerre, by M. Gabriel Hanotaux (Gounouilhou, 1 fr. each part), has reached the end of its third volume. It is likely to bo a considerable work, both in size and in literary and historical value. A chapter on the sea power of Europe is followed by one of great interest on the interior life of France during the present crisis : this may give an idea of the width and depth of M. Hanotaux's study ; also of the immense variety of the illustrations to each chapter.

In my last article I mentioned Notre Patric, one of Charles Peguy's own contributions to the " Colliers de la Quinzaine " which he edited

and published for years, ending a life of devotion to the highest ideals of patriotism when he gave himself for France at the battle of the Marne. Now I must earnestly advise all who appreciate this man who was a " soldier-saint " to read the beautiful little book, Peguy (Emile-Paul Freres, 3 fr. 50 c.), which M. Andre Suarea has written in his memory. Peguy was one of those of whom France may well be proud, who love her with that traditional love which takes no account of outward changes—a man, as M. Snares puts it, absolutely of his own time, a son of the Revolution and yet a son of the Crusades, a child of France through the ages, Jeanne d'Arc his heroine, the faith of Christendom, free-lance as he was, his inspiration.

The graceful art of M. Gabriel Faure, whose Italian sketches are well known, finds a new expression in Pay sages de Guerre (Perrin, 3 fr. 50 c.).

On the French front, including Ypres, and on the Italian, from the Dolomites to Rimini, he recalls campaigns of long ago fought out in the same streets, among the same rivers and mountains. An interesting article on Napoleon's return from Elba concludes the book, and M.

Faure reminds his readers that one of the best accounts of the thrilling scenes near Grenoble is given by Stendhal ; a fact unknown to Henry Houssaye when he wrote his history of that marvellous adventure.

Stendhal is perhaps not much read now ; but he holds a place of his own in French literature as a sincere and brilliant realist, and students of that literature will find him thoroughly studied in Stendhal, by Pierre Martino (Societe Francaise d'Imprimerie at de Librairio, 3 fr. 50 c.), a clever book which appeared shortly before the war.

In Troie : La Guerre' de Troie (Hachette, 5 fr.) M. Felix Sartiaux describes very attractively that country south of the Dardanelles to which the events of last year gave such fresh and absorbing interest.

He observes that recent facts give new occasion for thought on the great lessons of history, and with present-day politics in his mind he studios the site of Troy and the immortal campaign of the Greeks, pointing out how their heritage of sacred fire has descended to the Allied nations ; our heroes, like those of old, dying for the great cause of the rights of humanity.

Hardly any novels have been published in France lately. M. Bourget has given us Le Sens de la Mort (Plon-Nourrit, 3 fr. 50 c.), a story which is bound to leave a deep impression. As to its philosophical and literary merits, critics may differ ; but it is certainly a most striking and pathetic story, with fine characters strongly and fearlessly drawn, and a noble moral brought out in M. Bourget's own deliberate, uncompromising fashion. M. Rene Benjamin's novel, Gaspard, the winner of the Prix Goncourt for 1915 (Fayard et Cie., 3 fr. 50 c.), seems to be the first of a series called " Les Soldats de la Guerra." If the rest aro as good as this, it will be a remarkable series indeed. Gaspard is a Parisian soldier, by trade a small dealer in escargots, who joins his regiment when war breaks out, and brings to his soldiering all the daring, the wit, the resource, the realistic insolence and irreverence, the outer bravado, the inner loyalty and generosity, to be found anywhere within the bounds of Paris. This is saying a good deal, especially when one adds that the author is a past-master of the real Parisian argot, so that Gaspard's talk is often hard to be understood by an English reader. In spite of this and other peculiarities, the book is not one to bo missed. Gaspard is as heroic and lovable as he is startling, and the account of his short campaign is picturesque and terrible. E.