The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-01 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

RECOLLECTIONS OF CAULINCOURT•
Two Vols.
CoMum, London, 1838.
From the melodramatic manner in which this work
of
out, and the loose, threadbare character of some Of it°,
anecdotes, we are strongly disposed to doubt it's authentif
city, and to regard it as the mere ingenious compilation the
of
some practised bookmaker. We may be mistaken, an"
hut'
if may be really what it professes to be, genuine ; ho;
if so, it has been produced in a form least likely to irnPra%
this fact on the consideration of it's readers. It commences
in this hacknied fashion :—An invalid lady—whether young
or old she does not inform us—happens to be taking ",
solitary stroll, one fine morning, among " the shat
diest recesses of those lovely woodlands • wlnc",
skirt Plombiers, on the side near the Stanislas Fate,
t ain," with her " thoughts dreamingly wander'n7
back to a glorious period of the past," when suddenly', Just
as she is in the midst of her reverie, up comes a gentle,
man whose " figure was slender and pliant," and who had
,
an " an air of youth in spite of his premature wrinkles and
his pale and attenuated countenance." This pensive 311
interesting stranger turns out to be Caulincourt, Duke 01
Vicenza, grand Equerry to that very hero, the recollection
of whose glories was just at that moment engrossing ths
thoughts of the solitary gentlewoman. An acquaintance's
immediately formc'd between two enthusiasts for NaPale°9'
which reminds us by its sudden fervor of that formed he"
tween the two strangers in Canning's Robbers, one of wholn
it may be remembered, says to the other, " a sudtle,P„
thought strikes me, let us swear an eternal friendship
The consequence of this impromptu intimacy between
Caulincourt and the invalid lady is, that the former relates
f
to the latter, the history of his past life, with which, °
course, are copiously interwoven anecdotes of Napoleon:
the Emperor Alexander, Fouche, the Bourbons, and of all
those great public characters who have figured in France
and elsewhere, during the last twenty years. Mail
of these anecdotes are certainly new to us ; hut
there are many also that we have seen before ;
such as that of Frogere the actor, who is here made to sal
to the Emperor of Russia, " If I were not Frogere'
should wish to be Alexander." Now, it is not at all I'l°,l
that Caulincourt ever related this anecdote, for it is as 0,',1
as the hills, and well known to have been recorded of n'"
Vestris, who gave precisely the same answer to the Ki
of France. Again, the Duke is made to tell a st°rry
about the Emperor Alexander having left his cloak '"
pledge with a sledge-driver who had driven hull
incognito to the palace, and whom he had not the ineea9f
of paying—which very story has been going the rounds °
the Journals within the last year, with this only difference:.
that instead of being told of Alexander, it has been told '3'
his successor, Nicholas. These, together with many
grant mis-statements, such as
where the battle of EY'lali
is represented as having been gained by the French, when
it is well known it was a drawn battle, and if anything' :
de-
cided in favour of the Russians,strongly incline us to the belief
that Caulincourt has had little or nothing to do with the.se
anecdotal reminiscences ; that the " invalid lady of Stan"-
las Fountain," is a mere phantom, like Horam, the relator
of the " Tales of the Genii ;" that, in short, the book is
a mere compilation, a sort of anecdotal omnium gallierun!'
for the materials of which the ingenious manufacturer is
indebted to those shoals of memoirs and reminiscences of
Napoleon and his times, with which the French press has
been teeming ever since the period of the restoration of the
Bourbons.

We are (*lad to see from the provincial Papers that
throughout the country steps are in progress to celebrate the ensuing'
Coronation in a way becoming both the loyalty and chivalry of the
nation; public entertainments, in which the poor Are not to be forgotten,
balls, and other amusements, are announced,