Biography Letters Fiction

HAD the recent biographers of Galahad and of Napoleon collaborated on a title for this book, they would undoubtedly have chosen: "Talleyrand and his Girl Friends: or Too Much of his Private Life to Explain his Reputation." In which case, this review need have been written.

Perhaps the fact that the book was written by a woman may have had something to do with it.

The first section is devoted principally to Talleyrand's life with the beguiling Mme de Flahaut, and-as if that were not enough-the discussion is carried on even unto the uttermost generation, and full details are given of the picturesque and irregular lives of Charles de Flahaut, the son of that union, and of the Duc de Morny, the son's son.

Another section is devoted to Talleyrand's niece-by marriage-the beautiful Dorothee de Courland, Duchesse de Dino, and his grand-niece Pauline; and his respective relations with these relations are discuss with guto.

The part played by Mme de Stael in assisting Talleyrand during his exile in obtaining permission for his return to France, and in elevating him to the post of Foreign Minister, is also told without abridgement.

On page 386 a succinct paragraph sweetly declares that to present the next forty years in which Talleyrand was Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Consulate; during the Empire; at Vienna; and under Louis XVIII;- "Would entail the survey of the history of France and Europe during the period", Perish the thought! And let us by all means make haste and be off in the remaining 125 pages to a consideration of the exciting details of Talleyrand's liason and marriage with Madame Grande, the very beautiful, albeit mildly illiterate, daughter of a French official at Tranquebar in India.

In justice, it must be admitted that this life contains some extraordinarily interesting sidelights on history. Isolated episodes such as the death of Louis XV, the meeting of the Estates General, the assemblage on the Champs de Mars; the detention of Spanish Princes, and the Council of Erfurt, are told with a wealth of colorful detail not to be found in the more authentic histories. The story of Talleyrand's two years in American from 1792 to 1794, after he had been successively exiled from France and from England, with accounts of his visiting to various Revolutionary celebrities in Philadelphia, Albany, New York and Boston is of especial interest to American readers.

Moreover, the book is written with not a little grace and skill and discrimination. As a study of manners and morals of the period, it is well worth reading. But it must always be considered not as history, so much as an overtone to history. And those who are preparing for the mid-year examination in Histoty 30a had best stick closely to their faithful Hazens. W. I. N.