"The Nationa. History or France, 1—Tue Mippte Aces." By Fr.
Funck-Brentano. Translated from the French by Elizabeth O'Neill, M.A. Heinemann. 12s. 6d. net.
If the land that has no history is happy, France must be singularly unfortunate, for, unlike the countries mentioned here recently by jMr. Guedalla, it seems to be all history and geography. What the writers of historical fiction would do without France we cannot imagine. If France had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent her. So, in a way,, Frenchmen continue to invent her. To the English mind, the French appear to be always arranging themselves in historical attitudes. Even Monsieur Per-tichon, departing for a week Chamonix, pauses in the Gare de Lyon' to exclaim, ''Adieu, France, reino des Nations." It is per-chaps because of this eternal historical. preoccupation that the Frendh usually write history so well. We can produce a few historious as good as their best; wa can certainly produce many duller than their worst. The present volume is ans excellent example of French history. It is readable and enjoyable from the first page ta the last. Chapters like those here on the minstrels, the caithedrals and the university are really charming essays, but each is fully documented and strengthened with a bibliography of sources. Both as a book to be enjoyed and as a work to be -consulted the volume can be strongly recom mended.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.